A Dragonborn Rose
by ThatOnePsycho
Summary: Somehow, Ruby felt that all the Vampires, Dragons, Dragonborn (Ok, there might have been only one of those), Werewolf hunters and stuck up elves had NOT prepared her for the upcoming trials. Nor was her first time through college. At least her best friend was there with her.
1. Chapter 1

A young woman stood on the throat of the world, a blizzard lashing around her. Her voice roared over the wind that sent her cloak lashing to the side.

"Zu'u drey hi hind, Bormahu!" the world shook as she spoke, her arms thrown wide as she span in place, ignoring her companions, "Zu'u kriaan Alduin! Zu'u kriaan Miraak! Vokrii hofkiini! Zu'u Ysmir, Strundu'ul, Dovahsebrom, zu'u fen ni-"

The woman's roars were cut off by a shimmer of light where her and her companions once stood. After a long moment another voice spoke.

"Lok! Vah! Koor!"

The three words did not have the same world shaking effect as the woman's, but they did have an effect nonetheless. With unnatural swiftness the storm cleared, allowing two dragons to land. One with ragged wings and the other with blood red scales.

They stared at the shimmer for a moment, before the red one spoke.

"Bormahu bolaav ek hind?"

"Geh."

-X **Ruby** X-

Ruby Rose jerked up in bed with a ragged gasp for air. Looking around, she reached up to move her sweat coated hair out of her eyes.

That… that had been a weird dream. Dragons, werewolves, a civil war (which she hadn't gotten involved in), vampires and like, hyper-faunus? Khajiit and Argonians, her mind supplied in short order.

Sitting up, Ruby bleary made her way to the bathroom, turning on the water and stepping under it. After a minute, she frowned, reaching out and lowering the temperature to levels slightly above uncomfortably cold.

They hadn't had much in the way of hot water in Skyrim.

"Alduin's wings, they did darken the sky," Ruby sang under her breath, "his roar's furies fire, and his scales sharpened scythes."

Ruby ran a hand over the scar that Alduin's wing had gouged into her side during their battle in Sovngarde.

"Men ran and they cowered, they fought and they died. They burned and they bled as they issued their cries," Helgen… never again.

"We need saviors to free us from Alduin's rage. Heroes on the field of this new war to wage. And if Alduin wins, man is gone from this world. Lost in the shadow of the black wings unfurled," the bards had all but ignored Ruby when composing songs of Alduin's defeat, something she had been thankful for, focusing on…

"But then came the Tongues on that terrible day. Steadfast as winter, they entered the fray. And all heard the music of Alduin's doom. The sweet song of Skyrim, sky-shattering Thu'um," Ruby sighed leaning back. It had all seemed so real.

Shutting off the shower, Ruby dried off and put on her Signal uniform. As she walked into her room to grab Crescent Rose, however, she froze in place. Sitting on her nightstand was a familiar ring and an equally familiar leather bag below it.

Ruby picked up the ring, feeling her blood sing as she turned the false silver over. Starting up at her was a snarling wolf, "Hircine?"

Reaching down, Ruby opened the leather sack, finding seven books bound in black leather, "Mora?"

Spinning, Ruby noticed the extra weapons sitting next to Crescent Rose. A rose shaped staff, another carved in the likeness of a screaming face, a golden sword with a sun in its guard and a heavy shield, "Sanguine, Sheogorath, Merida, Peryite?"

And then she noticed a golden bow, "Bormahu?"

Slowly, Ruby reached behind her, grasping for one of the Black Books and already trying to figure out what knowledge she would trade. Before she could finish, Yang's voice reached her like a gunshot, "Who the hell are you guys?"

Ruby thrust the ring onto her right hand, summoning Dawnbreaker to her in a flash of golden light as she tore out of the room and into the living room…

And stopped the blade half an inch in front of Serana's throat, staring into the vampire's eyes as Serana curled a hand before Ruby's throat, "Sera?"

"Ruby?" Serana said, a look of relief spreading across her face as she stepped back, "Thank goodness. Me and J'Zargo were worried when we woke up and…"

"J'Zargo is aware of how useless you are without us," the Khajiit said, taking his eyes off Yang, while keeping whatever highly powerful spell he had prepared aimed at her, "J'Zargo is glad to see you are fine, my friend."

"Yeah," Ruby said, letting Dawnbreaker fall and disappear in a flash of light, "Yeah. It's good to see you guys too."

"Ruby?" Yang asked carefully as their father came rushing down the stairs, "You know these guys?"

"Uh… yeah," Ruby said, sending a silent prayer to any Aedra, or more realistically, Daedra willing to help, "It's… it's a long story. One we don't have time for, we gotta get ready for school, you know?"

"School?" Yang said, staring at Ruby, "Ruby, two friends we never heard of just showed up. School can wait."

Crud.

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana sat on the couch, crossing and uncrossing her legs as she watched Ruby. Her best friend was quietly squirming in place as the blond haired girl watched _them_.

Ruby had shrunk several inches and was wearing something much different from the black armor she wore during their adventures or the clothes she normally wore at Breezehome or Windstad. What she did have, however, was the scar Serana's father had given her in their final confrontation. Starting at the right edge of Ruby's mouth, it stretched at a sharp angle past the outer corner of her eye and ending just before her hairline.

In her head, Serana watched it once again. Ruby had cast aside Crescent Rose for Dawnbreaker, the one handed sword better for fighting in the low halls of Castle Volkihar and powerful against the vampires and Death Hounds there.

 _Ruby kicked one guard off Dawnbreaker with a grunt, already moving to intercept a spell fired at Serana as he disintegrated. The red missile crashed into her chest, attempting to rip out her life as a ring on her left hand flared. Ruby sank to one knee, flinching as the red energy was dragged out of her and shattered._

 _Serana launched a spell over Ruby, lightning crackling down the hall until it sank into the dunmer's chest. The moment his spell broke Ruby lunged up with a roar, "Yol!"_

 _A blast of fire rolled out from Ruby's mouth, incinerating the dunmer and detonating several alchemical vials strapped to his belt. Looking out the newly made hole, Serana watched the Dawnguard and Volkihar clash in the courtyard below. Ruby followed her gaze, taking a deep breath as she watched a blond haired nord smash into a pillar, his silvered axe sliding from lose hands as he did. Before the vampire could finish him, the leader of the Dawnguard, Isran, shot the vampire through the eye with a crossbow._

 _Serana realized, with a spike of guilt, that she didn't know most of these vampires' names._

" _Sera," Ruby said quietly, sheathing Dawnbreaker and pulling the bow hanging off her shoulder out and drawing an arrow from the quiver, "Get down."_

" _Right," Serana nodded, dodged behind a statue as Ruby knelt and nocked an arrow. A low glow emitted from the moonstone tip as she did._

" _Bormahu," Serana heard Ruby speak quietly in Dovahzul as she drew back the bowstring, pointing right at the dawning sun, "Aak daar ronaaza oblaan enook diil."_

 _The arrow rocketed away from them, followed by a explosion of golden light. Serana was forced to stifle a yelp of pain as the light hit her, feeling like her skin was on fire._

 _Snapping her eyes open, Serana gasped for air and noticed Ruby's worried face standing over her. The vampire took her friend's offered hand, staggering up with a slight moan, "Next time, I'm going to hide better."_

" _Hopefully there won't be a next time," Ruby said, walking past the hole to pick up the bow of Auriel from where it was lying. Sliding it back on, she drew Dawnbreaker, "are you alright? Do you need us to take a break?"_

" _I'm fine," Serana said, moving to join Ruby, "We're almost there. Let's just… let's just finish this."_

 _Ruby nodded, turning to the end of the end of the corridor and walked towards it. After a second, Serana joined her._

 _Standing before the door were two of her father's closest men. Well, men in a proverbial sense, in Fura's case._

 _Ruby stopped, just for a second, and called out three words, "Rii! Vaz! Zol!"_

 _The two guards staggered, falling forward with choked gasps. As Ruby and Serana passed, they started to push themselves up, glassy eyed, until Dawnbreaker swung out, reducing them to ash as the doors swung shut._

 _Serana's father was already transformed, hovering above the ground as he waited in his grey skinned gargoyle form, "Serana."_

" _Father."_

" _I see you still favor keeping a pet," he said, eyes flickering to Ruby, "You should have told me. I would have-"_

" _I'm not a pet!" Ruby called, before looking to Serana with worry in her eyes, "am I?"_

" _Of course you aren't," Serana said, focusing on her father again and taking a step forward. Enough to hide Ruby behind her own form, "You know why we're here."_

" _Of course I do," Harkon said, "You disappoint me. You've thrown everything I provided and thrown it away for this… pathetic creature."_

" _Provided for me?" Serana asked, unable to stop her incredulous laugh, "are you insane? You destroyed our family, slaughtered other vampires for some prophecy we don't understand. No more, I am done with you!"_

" _Serana," Harkon sighed, "Stop being petulant."_

" _I said," Serana repeatedly, feeling lightning crackle along her arms, "No more!"_

 _Harkon deflected the bolt with a snarl, "Fine then. I had hoped you would see reason, but you clearly have too much of your mother's blood in you. But what of her? She is a vampire hunter, Serana. She will kill you the moment you're done with me."_

" _If you believe that," Ruby said, stepping around Serana, "you don't know anything about us!"_

" _Fine then," Harkon raised a hand, red magicka gathering in his right hand, "You took my daughter from me, so I will-!"_

 _Harkon roared as Serana formed a ball of fire in one hand, ignoring the pain that formed, and send it crashing into his side, "I won't let you hurt her!"_

" _Yol!" Ruby's blast of fire struck Harkon, causing the vampire to explode into a flock of bats and flee backwards._

" _Enough!" Harkon launched two blasts of red at them as he reformed. Serana dodged to the side as Ruby ducked past it in a storm of petals and charged at Harkon._

 _Within two strokes of Dawnbreaker, Harkon apparently realized the daedric blade wasn't something he wanted touching him as he reverted to his magically weaker, but capable of using a sword, mortal form._

 _Serana slid behind a pillar as she watched her father and Ruby clash, aware that she wouldn't be much help in the brutal melee currently tearing to room apart. A swing for the throat barely dodged, a stab for the eye missing wide. Dawnbreaker and his sword flashing in the rising sun until, quite suddenly, Harkon feinted, his sword carving a heavy injury into her face as his other hand latched around her throat, "Did you really think you could defeat me, mortal? I've been fighting since your ancestors were still cowering in caves!"_

" _Yeah," Ruby croaked as blood ran down one side of her face, eyes (and thank any god who was willing to listen that Serana could say she still had more than one) meeting Serana's, "but there's something you aren't thinking about."_

" _And what is that, mortal?" Harkon laughed, slamming Ruby against the pillar behind her._

" _I didn't come in here alone," Ruby grinned._

 _Harkon span as Serana's next blast of fire hit him, "You'd chose her over me?"_

" _Yes," Serana said as Ruby's sword burst through Harkon's chest is an explosion of blood and ash._

" _I… See…" Harkon said, sinking to his knees and turning towards Ruby, "that will be a story to see… end this, mortal. I want her to see you do it."_

" _No," Ruby said quietly, yanking Dawnbreaker out of Harkon and letting him collapse as she walked away, the remaining light of the Daedric sword burning away, "C'mon, Sera-_

"-is everything alright?" Serana snapped out of her memories at Ruby's question, the dragonborn's eyes locked onto her. She realized the man, Ruby's father, had returned with several plates of food.

"Just memories," Serana said with a smile, reaching out to touch the scar across Ruby's face.

"Sooooo," both of them snapped towards the golden haired girl, "What the _hell_ is going on?"

\- X **Yang** X-

Yang watched the cat-guy, J'Zargo, tear into the plate of meat her dad had put in front of them as Ruby poked the other girl, Sera, under the ribs, "Sera? Hey, Sera~! Nir- Remnant to Sera~! C'mon, J'Zargo's gonna eat your food if you don't snap outta it… Sera? Is everything alright?"

Maybe it was something about the tone, but Sera snapped out of her thoughts, focusing on Ruby with an smile, "Just memories."

Yang watched the two of them as Sera's hand moved across the new scar on Ruby's face. A frown pulled down her face as she shared a confused look with her dad.

Ruby and Sera were clearly close… so why hadn't they ever heard of her before? Yang leaned forward, "Sooooo, what the _hell_ is going on?"

Yang would admit, it was funny to watch them both jump, whirling toward her. J'Zargo took a break of eating to let out a laugh, "J'Zargo likes this one! She gets straight to the point!"

"Yeah," Ruby mumbled, before saying something in a guttural voice under her breath as she rested her forehead on her fingers. For a brief second, Yang was distinctly remembered of Tai's meltdown in the wake of Summer's death. The same crushing weight on their shoulders, the resignation to something horrible.

Yang, after subtly checking to make sure the liquor cabinet was locked, began a mental checklist of the day so far. Woke up, ok. Got ready for school while hiding the stress of her approaching graduation, still normal. Come downstairs, pair of weirdos passed out across the couchs, things take a hard turn towards weird. Ruby comes tearing out of her room holding a sword and got a huge scar across her face, boarding the weird train. Ruby and one of them act closer than Yang had seen Ruby act with… well… nearly anyone. Welcome to weirdsville, population, five and counting.

Ruby sucked in a breath as Sera tapped her shoulder, entire body coiled like a spring… then took off like a bullet, Signal blazer and cloak fluttering to the ground as the door out of the house opened with a bang.

An awkward silence fell over the room before Sera sucked in an exasperated breath, standing and walking towards the door, "Come on, J'Zargo."

"She is fine," J'Zargo carelessly waved one… hand? Paw? "Let us not let this food go to was-"

"J'Zargo," Sera said, turning to him with a strange look in her eye, "Go get Crescent Rose."

"Fine," J'Zargo sighed, standing and turning with a bow that somehow managed to come across as mocking, "Thank you for your hospitality, friends."

"You're acting like I'm not coming along," Yang said, standing.

"No offense," Sera said from where she was standing in the doorway with something white in her arms, "but I'm pretty sure that's the last thing Ruby wants at the moment… but I do have one question for you."

"What?"

"Where would Ruby go if she was stressed about something?"

\- X **Ruby** X-

Ruby was out of most of her clothes by the time she was out of the front yard, shedding it with ease. By the time she hit the edge of the woods, she was ready to shift.

It started, as it always did, with the feeling of her heart smashing into her ribcage as it grew before anything else. Then her torso expanded as her arms stretched, popping and cracking all the while, a heavy thud echoing as her tailbone extended. Her legs changed too, feet becoming digitigrade and the next time she slammed her foot into the ground, bounding from the forest floor and into the trees, it cratered.

Ruby felt her face start to pull forward as red-brown fur sprouted from her body, covering her in seconds. She knew, had she been capable of seeing her reflection, her eyes would have shifted to a bloodshot yellow.

"Ruby!" Ruby's ears twitched towards the house, "Come back! Come- oh, dammit. Why can't you ever make anything easy!?"

Ruby let out a slight whine as she continued away from Serana. She needed _time_. How was she supposed to explain this to her dad and Yang?

Thud, thud, thudthudthu-

"Well met, Hunter. It's been a while… to you, at least."

Ruby missed the branch, crashing to the forest floor in front of the one who had distracted her.

The fair haired man looked down at her with an amused quirk of the lips, "I do believe this is the first time you have embodied Prey, Hunter. It's quite refreshing."

 **Lord Hircine,** Ruby growled.

" _Lord_ Hircine?" The Daedric Prince of the Hunt asked, "Since when have you referred to any of us as _Lord_?"

 **Figured it was probably a good idea, after bombing any chance of bridges with Bal.**

"That?" Hircine chuffed a laugh, rapping the butt of his spear against the floor, "Hunter, you have never made me prouder to call you my champion than in that moment. Bal has long believed himself untouchable, an apex predator. I would not have been surprised if he attempted another Planesmeld. You destroying his mace reminded him that even the greatest predator can become prey."

 **Thank you? What are you doing here?**

"What do I do anywhere? And one of us needed to check on you. Come, join me."

 **Errr… right, kinda a dumb question** , Ruby loped alongside Hircine, yet somehow never got ahead of him, **sooooo… is this what it's gonna be like? You know, when I die?**

"Perhaps."

 **Perhaps?**

"Standard champion headache," Hircine grunted, waving one hand idly, "I have claim on your soul, but so does Sheogorath, Mora, Nocturnal and Sanguine. Then there is the question of if we can even _have_ claim, as it is Anuic in nature, The Dead One's tendency to grab souls of those he views as worthy no matter who they belong to and that you have already begun to Walk like them."

 **Errrr… Uh… Right,** Ruby growled, head spinning. Anuic? Dead one? Walk?

"Do not worry yourself with it, Hunter, I do not expect you to understand at this point. Know this, the destination of your soul is like all others at this point. Everywhere and nowhere. Now, let us finish this hunt so I can depart and you can return to… whatever you intended to do."

 **What are we hunti- oh.**

Hircine chuckled as they exited the forest to stare at the pack of beowolves standing in it, "Yes, 'oh'. Shall we, Hunter?"

 **Yes** , Ruby lowered herself onto all fours.

Hircine entered a sprinter's position next to her, "Then let the hunt begin!"

The ground under the Daedric Prince and his hound's feet shattered as they charged forward. About thirty feet from the closest one Hircine lept into the air, spinning his spear and launching it into the beowolf. Ruby saw him land and draw it from the body as she rushed past.

Crashing into the first Grimm, Ruby latched her jaw around its throat, ripping it out with a natural savagery. Letting it dissolve in her mouth, Ruby leapt at the next, tearing into it with her claws and ignoring the third that tried to rip her back to shreds through her Aura… until Hircine's spear crashed into them, killing the beowolf and shattering Ruby's Aura in one move. A testament to how much he was holding back.

"Hunter!" the Daedric Prince howled, spinning around the claw that attempted to tear into his side as his spear appeared in his hand, "When you hunt with me, you will _not_ use such underhanded techniques!"

Ruby laughed, tearing into another Grimm as her blood began to sing. Danger made it more fun.

Bite, gouge, rip and tear as Hircine carved his way through the Grimm. Find the…

 **Alpha**! Ruby barked, rushing towards it as her patron did the same. Diving under the claw, Ruby clamped her jaw around the leg and twisted until there was a loud crack as Hircine punched through the armored chest with his spear.

The Daedric Prince watched it fade with a shake of his head, "No trophies. That isn't nearly as fun. Still, you did well, Hunter. I will reward you next we mee-"

 **Wait**! Ruby called and when he did, she continued, **This is… we're not on Nirn anymore, right?**

"You aren't."

 **Then… where are we? And is there any chance of us making it back? I don't want to lose the rest of my friends.**

"The realms of Oblivion are many," Hircine said, throwing his spear at the Grimm and summoning it back, "and not all are ruled by the Princes. As for the second, you should be able to. On a level that would shatter your mortal mind, this place is close to Mundas. Much closer than what you would need to reach across to reach a Prince's domain. Now, goodbye, Hunter."

 **Bye** , Ruby watched him disappear into a portal and turned towards her destination.

After twenty minutes of walking, Ruby stopped in front of her goal, whining as she curled up next to it, **Hi, mom**.

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana signed as she adjusted her hood with one hand, the other holding Ruby's clothing, "I swear, you're going to be the death of me one of these days."

Exiting the woods, and ignoring the caw of a corvid above her, Serana caught sight of the giant mass of red fur curled up on the ground. Walking over, Serana toed her friend's side, "Wake up."

The wolf snarled in her sleep. Serana did it again, "No, seriously, wake up. We need to talk."

Serana was well aware she had picked up at least a few of Ruby's speech patterns over the couple of years they had been together.

Finally, the wolf woke up, staring up at Serana with bleary eyes. Before her own eyes, the wolf shifted back into Ruby. Something just as sickening in reverse as it was normally.

It was the voiding of the extra mass that did it. Ruby's tail fell off, the injury healing in an instant as the fur fell off, leaving raw skin as Ruby shrunk with a series of disgusting cracks and vomiting at least one mouthful of marrow and bone chips. Finally, Ruby stood up, turn to Serana, "What's up?"

"Well first," Serana said, thrusting the clothes into Ruby's arm, "You can do me a favor and get dressed."

"Oh," Ruby looked down, "Yeah, I shou- why'd you bring this along?"

Ruby was holding the vest she had been wearing this morning like it was a rotten animal, nose wrinkled as she looked between it and Serana.

"I thought you wanted to go to school."

"I was trying to dodge talking about it for a moment. Why would I need school? I'm the freakin' Archmage of Winterhold!"

"Which I'm sure will look amazing when you're trying to get a job, 'Archmage of a place you never heard of'!"

"Fine," Ruby grumbled, dropping the vest and pulling on her pants and buttoned her shirt, "Fine. I'm just saying, dropping pillars of fire on the Grimm would look pretty cool."

"Still wouldn't help us find work," Serana shot back.

"I could found a new branch of the Companions!" Ruby said with a triumphant grin, "And if they're like 'You can't do that' I'll be like 'Really? You wanna take that up with the pack of three hundred pound wolfmen?'"

"That'd probably just get us killed faster," Serana said, "I hate to break it to you, Ruby, but I didn't go seven centuries just so you could get me killed."

"You slept through, like, ninety nine percent of that! How old were you when your mom put you in that coffin thing?"

"Twenty three."

"Then you're only twenty five! Maybe twenty six."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really!"

"And why's that?" Serana asked with a laugh.

"Because I said so!" Ruby said, stomping her foot.

There was something infinitely less intimidating about a Dovahkiin who reached Serana's chest instead of being even with her, "Really?"

"Yes, really," Ruby puffed out her cheeks, the scar tissue becoming more obvious. Ruby had split the stitches three times while her Aura refilled doing the same thing, "I'm a Dovah, so what I say is the rules!"

Serana reached out, patting Ruby in the head, knowing it would irritate her friend, "Ok, oh mighty dragon, I'm twenty five or six."

"Stop that!" Ruby whined, swatting at Serana's hand, "Sera, I said stop! It's not funny!"

"I'd say it is," Serana said, "You're… what? Thirteen? Fourteen?"

"Fifteen," Ruby said, turning away from Serana to sulk.

Fifteen. Huh, "Are you alright?"

"Whoever did this is dumb. I was happy the way I was, now I'm fifteen again. You can't do _anything_ when you're fifteen. It's all 'Don't drink that Ruby, take this watered down stuff' and 'No, Ruby, you can't cast that spell yet, you're just gonna blow up this entire room'-"

"You know," Serana said, "That second one sounds like something you'd hear _now_. Remember the firestorm incide-"

"We swore never to talk about that!" Ruby all but barked, before sitting next to the marble plaque, "Today's not been a good one so far."

"Considering you tore out of that house like someone asked you to fight Miraak again, I figured that. What's wrong?"

"...I'm wondering if this was a mistake."

"What?"

"Being here."

"Once again, terrified running gave that away. Ruby," Serana said, crouching next to her friend, "What's wrong? I'm here."

"I'm just… everything about this is setting me on edge. I can't begin to think of how I explain all this to Yang and dad," Ruby shrank in on herself, her younger form making it all the more obvious, "I mean… souls are a big thing on Remnant. A lot of people think our Aura is our soul and that's what separates us from Grimm, so how do I tell them…"

"That your main source of power comes from the consumption of dragon souls?"

"Yeah."

"If everything you've told me is true, I'm willing to bet they wouldn't react that badly and you know that. What is it really?"

"...I dunno."

"Ask you after a bottle of rum?" Serana joked, nudging Ruby. The Dovahkiin didn't respond, "Ruby…"

"I'm serious," Ruby said, "I dunno. It's like… it's like… you know that thing where you go to a place you knew only to find it's completely changed?"

"Painfully."

"It feels like the reverse of that," Ruby said, running a finger up the scar, "I've changed… but Remnant hasn't."

Serana watched Ruby reach out and trace the rose carved into the marble slab in front of them, choosing to focus on the name for the first time…

And feeling like she was hit in the gut as she read the words 'Summer Rose', "This is…"

"Yeah," Ruby said, voice cracking, "Mom, this is Serana. Serana, this… this is…"

"C'mon," Serana said, quietly urging Ruby up, "Let's go somewhere else. Can you think of…"

"There's a ferry to Vale," Ruby said, letting Serana guide her along, "let's get into the city for a bit. Where's J'Zargo?"

"Probably back at your house," Serana said with a roll of her eyes, "Eating or somethi- What's this?"

Ruby looked at the necklace that Serana had pulled out of her breast pocket, the golden dragon flashing in the morning sun, "What- that wasn't there- I dunno. Just put it away for now."

"Alright," Serana said, stowing it back in the pocket, "Let's go into town. Maybe you can figure something out."

\- X **Tai** X-

Tai rolled his eyes as Yang paced around the living room, "I can't believe you-"

"I?" Tai asked, walking away to answer the door

"You just let those two leave to find Ruby! Without me!"

"I agree with Sera. Ruby doesn't want to see us at the minute, she's scared about something, so we should take a step back."

"But!"

"Sometimes you have to pick your battles, Yang. Including how you fight them," here Tai swung the door open, turning to Qrow, "Did you find her?"

"Yeah," Qrow said, "Her and that Serana girl were going into Vale."

"Serana?" Tai blinked, "that's her name?"

"You didn't get her name?" Qrow asked, pushing past Tai to crash onto the couch.

"Ruby just called her Sera."

"Huh," Qrow shrugged, "Anyways, I found Ruby asleep next to Summer's grave… which also explains why she stripped."

"Which is?" Tai prompted as Yang preened about knowing where her sister had gone. Ruby suddenly ditching her clothes had been another headscrathing addition to a day already filled with them.

"Apparently Ruby's got the ability to turn into a weird beowolf thing," Qrow said dryly, "and before you ask, no, that's not a joke and yes, I _am_ sure I'm not drunk enough to hallucinate it."

"Considering everything else that's happened today, I'm willing to trust you on this one," Tai said with a heavy sigh, "I went looking through her room after she left and… well, come on, it's easier to show you."

Tai walked down the halls, opening the door and walking in. Everything was exactly as he left it, the various 'oddities' lined up on the bed.

"Hey!" Yang said, rushing past him towards one of them, "That's the sword Ruby had whe-"

"Yang," Tai started, "Don't-!"

"-n she came running- OW!" Yang yelped, dancing in place as the smoke rose from the hand that she had wrapped around the sword's hilt, "What the hell?"

"Yeah," Tai said, turning around and leaving the room, "It did the same to me. I had to pick it up with the blanket."

Wetting a gauze bandage, Tai returned to the room and wrapped it around Yang's hand to remove the sting.

"Any of the others do that?" Qrow asked.

"No."

Qrow nodded, picking up the golden bow with a whistle, "This things really well balanced. Wish I had an arrow to try it out."

"What the hell?" Yang picked up the black armor on the bed, leaving the equally black hooded cloak behind, "this is super light. And, I've never seen anything like this before…"

"But we can't know what it's like without Ruby here," Tai said.

Qrow picked up one the black books, turning it over before opening it, "This isn't in any language I've seen before."

"I know," Tai said, ignoring the nauseated feeling in his gut as Qrow pulled out his scroll, "What are you doing?"

"Sending a picture to Oz," Qrow said, hitting the send button, "Hopefully he'll know."

"Sooo," Yang said, "let's take a step back, ok? What do we know? Ruby's acting super weird, has weird friends-"

"-'Friend'," Qrow made quotation marks with his hands, "Her and that Serana girl are-" his scroll went off, "Oz! Wh-"

"Qrow, where did you find that?"

"Why, do you know i-"

"Where did you find it?" Ozpin repeated.

"Ruby had it."

"Ruby?" Ozpin's voice actually let some shock enter, "Summer and Tai's daughter?"

"Yeah. Why, is there something wrong?"

"Can you and Tai be here for a meeting in an hour?"

"Oz, is something wrong? Because we've been having a bad day here and-"

"I don't _know_ yet, Qrow. That's why I need you here, so we can find out how to deal with it."

Tai nodded, "We can be there."

"Thank you."

-X AN X-

Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?


	2. Chapter 2

Serana stood in the crowd, tapping her foot and watching the musician sitting on the street corner as the… what was it? Cars? Drove by. Looking back at the red headed boy who had been talking at her for the last four minutes, she ran her eyes up and down his body for want of _something_ to do, "Are you _still_ talking? I said I wasn't interested."

"But you haven't left," he said with a smug grin.

"Because I'm waiting here for someone," she said, "not because I'm remotely interested in you. Leave me alone."

"I-"

" _Alone,"_ Serana repeated.

"Come on, it'd be a go-"

"She said," Ruby growled, somethat also wasn't remotely scary when she wasn't a walking disaster area masquerading as a full grown woman, as she appeared from between two people like a ghost, "leave her alone."

The boy gave her an unamused look, "Stay out of adults' business-"

Serana gave a laugh, before reaching around him to grab Ruby by the hand as the Dovahkiin's hand curled into a claw, "Adults? You're not an adult. Come on, Ruby, let's-"

"Hey!" he planted a hand on Serana's shoulder, "I didn't say you co- ARGH!"

Serana sighed as Ruby effortlessly began crushing his hand. People began to turn and stare at the confrontation, "Let me make something clear, _Kul-"_

"Ruby," Serana sighed again as the world pulsed with the Dovahzul.

"-Ruz sul hi unt wah-!"

"Ruby!" Serana repeated, sharper, "I can take care of myself. On that note, if you _ever_ touch me without my permission, I will sick Ruby on you."

"Zu'u wahl paal do deyra fah ek," Ruby said under her breath, letting go of his hand and stepping back, "hi nid."

"Come on," Serana said, turning and walking away from the boy. About two streets away, Ruby finally spoke.

"How mad are you right now?" Ruby asked, head bowed.

"About the assault or the kleptomania?"

Ruby sheepishly removed the stolen wallet from her pocket, "I had only grabbed enough to pay for something to eat, but then…"

"Try a bit harder next time? I know you're, well, you, but it could still lead to problems," Serana urged softly as they passed a crowd. It was a hollow request, she knew. Considering what Paarthurnax said of the matter the occasional bout of Ruby stealing stuff (weapons, a disproportionate amount of the time) was a fairly low manifestation of her draconic nature.

"I do try!" Ruby defended herself, "I don't actually steal often!"

"Shhh!" Serana looked around, "I know. Most of our income comes from…"

"Pretty much any source other than that or murder?"

"Well, that depends on what you define as murder," Serana said, "but I wish you hadn't had to go undercover with the guild to find Esbern."

"Sometimes we gotta do dumb stuff to save the world," Ruby said, flipping open the wallet and removing several strips before throwing it into an alley and shoving them into her pocket, "C'mon, there's a restaurant that we used to go to all the time somewhere around here, I'm starving."

Serana rolled her eyes, "I'm not mad, by the way."

"You're not!?" Ruby twirled to look at Serana, smiling widely. Looking all the world like a puppy dog that had just been praised by its owner.

"No," Serana shook her head with a laugh, "I could of handled it myself, but if neither of us even stepped in for the other, things would get boring pretty quickly."

"Who wants things to be boring?" Ruby stuck out her tongue, before letting out a little 'oh' of excitement, "We should go Grimm hunting at some point, Sera! That never gets boring!"

Serana rolled her eyes. Trust Ruby to jump from larceny to hunting without pausing.

\- X **Qrow** X -

Qrow leaned against the wall, sighing heavily and pulling out his flask. Before he could unscrew it, Tai grabbed it, "Hey!"

"Can you _not_ right now?" Tai said, "We're about to meet with Ozpin, I don't need you drunk during it."

"You're taking this well," Qrow said.

"Someone needs to keep calm," Tai said, "and last time things went wrong in our family, I dropped the ball. I think it's my turn."

Qrow winced, "You didn't drop the ball…"

"I should have paid more attention to Yang instead of sitting around feeling bad for myself, realized that finding out about Raven just before Summer-" Tai stopped, closing his eyes, "I should've realized she was going to go off looking for Rae with Ruby."

Qrow couldn't help the second wince. Tai still beat himself up over falling apart after Summer's death, no matter how many times Qrow pointed out that a good portion of the blame could be planted at Raven's feet.

Tai had been different before that relationship, throwing up the mask of a constant hothead who enjoyed riling people up for fun to hide some pretty big insecurities. After Raven had dropped the bomb about her pregnancy, Tai had grabbed Qrow and dragged him back to Beacon for a teaching degree. Determined to have a more stable source of income for Yang.

Then Raven had abandoned them and those insecurities had come rushing back. Tai had crumpled like a can, devolving to a man going through the motions of living and taking care of his daughter.

It had killed Qrow to see his best friend like that, because of his _damn_ sister. And it had, if anything, hurt Summer more.

STRQ's leader had stepped up with her trademark confidence, seamlessly sliding into the place that should have been Raven's. Perhaps a bit too well, considering that Yang hadn't been aware that she wasn't Summer's biological child until just before the news of her death came in, and Tai melted down again.

"That wasn't your fault," Qrow repeated, "it happens."

"It shouldn't have," Tai said as the door slid open, letting Qrow and him approach Ozpin and Glynda. The headmaster focused on them, face grim.

"Did you bring one of the books?"

"Uh… Yeah" Qrow reached into the bag at his hip, handing the black book over to Ozpin, "What is it, Oz? What's it say?"

"The City of Inkseeds rose from the desert, shining and decadent. Somehow, it still stood. I crossed through the gate, and the beast knew exactly where to take me: the way worn by beggars and poets. The only place a man of my appetites can find satisfaction. I'm not proud, but then, nobody ever is," Ozpin flicked open the first page, reading it.

"...What?"

"The Hidden Twilight," Ozpin said, solemnly, slamming it shut, "A Black Book of Mora."

"Real clever name," Qrow snorted, "What's Mora?"

" _Who_ is Mora," Ozpin corrected, "The Prince of Knowledge. A powerful and dangerous being. You said Ruby had this?"

"Yeah, seven of 'em."

"The whole known set," Ozpin said, "I can't possibly imagine why a girl like your daughter would have them."

"They're dangerous?" Tai asked, voice hard.

"On their own? No. They're simply books, the contents of which can be used for good and evil, like any other. Is there anything else odd about Ruby, recently?"

"Where to start?" Qrow asked, "There's the couple of weird guys who showed up, the armory that showed up, and I got pictures if you want them, and her ability to turn into a beowolf thing."

"Let's start with the weapons," Ozpin said.

\- X **Tai** X-

"Well?" Tai urged as Ozpin paced, staring at the holographic images of Ruby's new weaponry.

"Well," Ozpin said, "Your daughter certainly makes strange bedfellows."

"You recognize them?"

"Oh, yes," Ozpin said, "they crop up from time to time, often in the hands of warriors that go on to change the world. I doubt the Princes, whatever they are, would settle for less."

"You make it sound like you don't know who these guys are," Qrow said, leaning back in a chair, only to fall backwards with a squawk at Ozpin's next words.

"I don't," Ozpin said, sounding slightly detached, "There's enough information about the Princes to know two things. They're capable of granting great power and when they decide to make their presence known, there is often something world shaking about to happen. Qrow, I need to ask you something."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"If I were to pull strings to have Miss Rose moved to Beacon early, would she be able to handle it?"

Tai felt his jaw drop as he stared at the back of Ozpin's head at the same time Glynda gave a protesting, "Sir!"

"Why?" Tai asked.

"Because when the Princes get involved," Ozpin said turning just enough to let Tai see that the normally unflappable headmaster had a worried frown on his face, "It's normally only one or two. That Miss Rose has apparently made contact with and earned the right to carry artifacts belonging to at least four worries me greatly. I'm not sure on the armor, bow or this," Ozpin pointed to the screaming staff, "but I must assume they also represent a Prince, so bring that to seven."

"Give us a sitrep, Oz," Qrow said, "Who are these guys?"

"The sword," Ozpin gestured with his cane, "is called Dawnbreaker, it represents Meridia, who is often associated with light."

"You make them sound like gods," Glynda observed.

"For all I know," Ozpin said, "They _are._ As I said, we know next to nothing about these beings. If they're each one person who is incredibly long lived, or a family that goes by the same name, how many there are... The only other hint is that those books," Ozpin pointed to the book on his desk, "are written in what is either a long dead language or a cypher. One even _I_ am not fluent in."

"You read that just fine," Qrow said.

"It's not the first time I have handled that particular book, Qrow," Ozpin turned back to the image of 'Dawnbreaker', "It's a powerful weapon against the forces of Darkness, I will admit that much. But I don't trust it anymore than the others."

"Right," Tai nodded, "What's next?"

"Next is _Spell_ breaker," Ozpin pointed at the shield.

"Creative," Qrow snorted.

"I'll admit, I don't like seeing this one," Ozpin continued with a scowl.

"Why?"

"Because the last time it appeared, its wielder killed one of our charges."

Tai looked between at the grim faces on everyone else, "Uh… who?"

"Don't worry about it," Qrow said, "why?"

"I never found out, before," here Ozpin hesitated, "my predecessor eliminated her. Still, it is not the shield's fault, the time before that, it was in the hands of one of the most noble women you could ever meet."

"Pretty big turn around."

"A fairly common occurrence with the Princes," Ozpin said, "with two glowing exceptions, you cannot know which side of a conflict they will take until someone appears with one of their weapons."

"Why do I get the feeling those exceptions aren't good…?" Qrow said.

"Because they aren't. Luckily, none of Miss Rose's artifacts belong to them. This staff," Ozpin pointed to the one made like a rose, "has shown up before, but I don't know it's name or who it belongs to."

"Joy," Qrow grunted, "Why aren't these on lockdown?"

"Because every time it is tried, they vanish shortly after," Ozpin said, "Now, you didn't answer. Would Miss Rose be able to handle it?"

"From what I know, she'd do ok," Qrow shrugged, "but who knows what she's holding out on us. Especially with that Serana girl."

"We'll put together some way to test them both then," Ozpin said, "I don't enjoy potentially putting my students at risk, should Miss Rose turn out to be a threat, no matter how small a chance that is," he said before Qrow or Tai could interrupt him, "and more likely, either her friends or the Princes decided to make themselves known as a threat, but ultimately, it's better to have them become threats here than at Signal or where we can't track them. If Miss Rose decides to confide in you, allow her, but don't pressure her. It could very well end badly."

\- X **Serana** X-

"No," Serana said.

"But," Ruby protested, "but- _Sera!"_

"We don't need another weapon, Ruby," Serana said in exasperation, "You already have enough to equip the entire Whiterun militia."

"But think of how much better they'll be with _cannons!"_ Ruby said, "like, Ulfric attacks and Balgruuf is just like 'fire!' and the civil war ends in a minute!"

"And how would they keep those cannons firing?" Serana asked with a sigh, wondering, not for the first time, how she got stuck as the most consistent handler of her semi-womanchild of a best friend.

"Oh. Yeah…" Ruby said with a frown, shoulders sagged before jumping up, "Then I'll buy something for Blaise and Av-!"

"Blaise is twelve," Serana said, cutting off Ruby before she could offer suggestions on _what_ she intended to buy the children currently being allowed to live in Proudspire with Jordis.

"So?" Ruby asked, "I was learning to fight when _I_ was twelve."

"Are we sure your soul is draconic?" Serana asked, "because I think yours is a Nord."

Ruby grunted, "You don't need to be born in Skyrim to be a Nord, damn what the Stormcloaks say."

Serana laughed, shaking her head, "Still unhappy with them?"

"I agree that the Aldmer are a problem, but wasting everyone's stuff fighting a civil war for one god isn't helping," Ruby cast a baleful look at the weapon shop, before turning and walking away, "I'll get Eorlund to make them a sword or something."

"Really? You're gonna badger the best blacksmith in Skyrim to make weapons for your kids?"

"Not my kids!" Ruby said.

Yeah, because if Ruby admitted that, she would have to admit to being incredibly negligent, "They live in your house, are taken care of by your steward, are taught by tutors you paid for… remind me how they're not your kids?"

"They're not my kids," Ruby insisted quietly, "I'm just trying to make sure they _get to_ be kids… especially Aventus."

"By buying them swords?" Serana responded instantly, deciding the best way to cure the somber mood Ruby tended to slip into when Aventus's past was mentioned was to head it off. Serana had never found out what that was, having only woken after Ruby had met Aventus.

"Ok," Ruby frowned, "maybe not my best idea, but definitely not my worst."

"The day you top your worst idea is the day we all die," Serana shot back with a smirk.

Ruby smiled, "If yo-"

"Help!" Serana and Ruby whirled around at the call, watching a young man run towards them, "There's been a murder at- at-"

"Where?"

"Lonán's!" He gasped, "three streets over!"

Serana met Ruby's eyes, struggling to keep the excited smile off her face. Then, as one, they took off, neither bothering to suppress their supernatural speed.

\- X **Ruby** X-

" _Keep an eye out, Ly," Ruby said, kneeling in front of the doorway with a lockpick._

" _I can't believe we're doing this," Lydia sighed, "Shouldn't we be dealing with dragons?"_

" _Alduin hasn't been sighted for, like, two months," Ruby said, continuing to attempt to spring the lock, "and that stupid party isn't for another three."_

" _So we're looking for missing children now?"_

" _Yep! Not much else to d- there!"_

 _Ruby stood, opening the door and grinning to Lydia before she ducked into the house. Sliding up the staircase, the seventeen year old Dragonborn tilted her ear towards the noise of someone talking, "So… very tired… no, can't sleep, it's for the others! Sweet Mother, Sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unwort-"_

 _At this point, Ruby entered the room and immediately let out a confused, "What?"_

 _Kneeling in a circle of candles, driving a knife into the emaciated and long dead body of a woman, was a young boy who also looked starved. At Ruby's words, he span around, a look of shock rapidly changing to joy, "It worked! I knew you'd come, I knew it! I did the Black Sacrament, over and over! With the body and the-"_

" _What are you_ _ **talking**_ _about?" Ruby asked in confusion, staring at the boy who had scrambled over to her, knife covered in dried blood still in hand._

" _The…" Aventus Aretino took a step back, "The Black Sacrament? The ritual to summon the Dark Brotherhood? You are from them, right?"_

" _No," Ruby said, pulling down her hood, "I'm not. Isn't the Brotherhood a group of assassins?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Then why do you need an assassin?" Ruby asked, looking down at Aventus._

" _I…" Aventus looked away, "promise you won't tattle?"_

" _I promise," Ruby said, squatting so she was even with Aventus._

" _The matron at Honorhall orphanage in Riften," he said, "She… she needs to die!"_

 _Ruby blinked, "Why?"_

" _Because… because…!" Aventus's fists began to shake, "because she's an evil bitch!"_

 _Ruby leaned back slightly, "Ok then…" what to do…? "How evil is 'evil', because I'm not a member of the Dark Brotherhood, but it_ _ **is**_ _my job to deal with evil stuff."_

" _It is!?"_

" _Yeah," Ruby said, "Now, how bad?"_

 _The way Ruby saw it, there were two answers to that question at this point that were about even in chance. One, the kid was insane, which, in all honesty, could very well be true considering the flipping_ _ **dead body**_ _behind them or two, he was telling the truth and the matron was so evil the kid felt the need to find a_ _ **flipping dead body and use it to try and summon an assassin.**_

" _She," Aventus breathed in, "She takes most of the money from the Jarl for herself, she beats anyone who doesn't finish their chores quick enough and she starved us! Sometimes we'd go days without food!"_

 _Yep, definitely looking like option two, "That does sound like the type of person I'd stop."_

" _It is?" Aventus met her eyes, "it is, isn't it?"_

" _Yeah. I'm not promoting I'll kill her, but I'll make sure she doesn't hurt anyone again."_

" _You're," Aventus looked to e on the verge of tears, "You're the best! A real hero!"_

" _Yep," Ruby said with a smile, "now, I should probably get going to sto-"_

" _Wait!" Aventus cried, turning and rushing to the bedside table and grabbing a plate, "This was my mom's favorite," Ruby's stomach rolled as she saw the backwards glance Aventus sent to the body, "she said it was worth a lot! I had planned to give it to the assassin, to pay for the-"_

" _Aventus," Ruby said, gently pushing the plate away, "if that's your mom's favorite, then you shouldn't give it to_ _ **anyone**_ _until your kids are old enough."_

" _You… You want me to keep it?"_

" _Yeah, I don't- oof!" Ruby winced as Aventus threw the plate onto the bed and tackled her around the waist, wrapping his arms around her and sobbing into her cloak, "Hey, hey, c'mon, you don't need to cry! It's nothin-"_

" _I was expecting a scary assassin," Aventus said into the cloak, shoulders still shaking, "instead I got a hero!"_

" _Uh… yeah," Ruby said awkward, "listen… do you have anywhere to stay? Other than here?"_

" _No?"_

" _Riiiight," Ruby said, "Come on."_

" _Where are we going?" Aventus asked._

" _One second," Ruby said opening the door, "Ly! Get over here!"_

" _What?" Lydia asked, looking slightly irate._

" _Got a weird one for ya."_

" _Really?" Lydia asked, "weirder than the fishery?"_

" _Yeah," Ruby pulled her rucksack off her back and opened it, pulling a heavy handful of coins out of it, "Listen. I need to ride to Riften, I need you to take Aventus here to Breezehome. I'll meet you there after I'm done."_

" _Really? You're using me as a babysitter now?"_

" _Yes, Lydia."_

 _Lydia's face betrayed a bit of shock, "Ok, then."_

" _Lydia's my housecarl," Ruby explained to Aventus, "She's gonna take you to my house while I go deal with the matron."_

 _Ruby stayed with them throughout the narrow streets of Windhelm and across the bridge leading to the stables. Climbing onto Frost, Ruby offered them a small smile before she road off._

 _Then it slid off, replaced with a wolf's snarl._

 _By Hircine, if Aventus was telling the truth there would be_ _ **Oblivion**_ _to pay._

 _Frost's hooves thundered across the ground a little over twelve hours later, as Ruby urged him into a gallop of reach the city of Riften on the horizon. Ruby reached out, patting the horse, "You'll have time to rest soon, buddy."_

 _Frost nickered, pushing on until they reached the gate of Riften. Striding towards the door, Ruby shot a glare at the guards moving to block her._

 _They, unlike a kit if people in Skyrim, recognized who they were about to antagonize and stopped, snapping to attention, "Thane!"_

" _Is the Jarl still taking visitors?" Ruby asked, popping up her hood as another the Riften's common mistings began to come down._

" _I- I would not know, ma'am. Why?"_

" _I need to discuss something with her, take care of my horse?"_

" _Yes, of course, ma'am," one guard pushed open the gate as the other took Frost's reins from her._

 _Ruby strode over the bridges, passing through the market and the courtyard of Mistveil before forcing open the doors, "We need to talk."_

 _The court stopped, turning towards her. Laila raised an eyebrow, "What of, Thane Rose?"_

" _Honorhall," Ruby said, "I want to buy it."_

" _Why?"_

" _I need to investigate something there."_

" _And that requires you to own it?" Laila asked, "I could just_ _ **give**_ _you permission to carry out said investigation."_

" _Would you?" Ruby asked, bowing her head to hide her blush._

" _I don't see any reason not to," Laila said, "You have proven that you act with the interest for the people of this hold. Will you need any support?"_

" _Couple of guards, maybe," Ruby said._

 _Laila nodded to two, who followed Ruby out of the keep and to the orphanage. It took no time for Aventus to be proven right, as the first thing Ruby heard was, "-their duties will get an extra beating, do I make myself clear?"_

" _Yes, Grelod," Several young voices called._

" _And another thing! I will hear no more talk of adoptions," Ruby's face grew darker at that, leaving her to round the corner and see the old woman with her back to Ruby, "None of you riff-raff is getting adopted e-"_

" _You seem certain of that," Ruby said quietly, taking a seething joy at the woman's jump._

" _Who are you?" the woman demanded._

" _Special investigation," Ruby said, "I'm making sure this place is suitable for the children that stay here. I'll give you a hint, you aren't doing so hot right now. 'extra' beating, was it?"_

" _I- get out!" Grelod snapped._

" _I don't think so," Ruby said, turning to the guards, "Keep our host company while I look around."_

" _Yes, ma'am."_

" _You can't do this! I have rights in my home!"_

" _Then go to it," Ruby said, "Honorhall belongs to the Jarl, who gave us permission to conduct this investigation, you can complain to her."_

" _I- I-"_

 _Ruby tuned Grelod out, scanning the area. Checking the beds, which were in horrendous state, and opening one pair of double doors and checking the bedroom. Nothing suspicious quire yet._

 _Stepping out of the room, Ruby walked over to a second set, trying to open it… before discovering it to be locked, "Give me the key to this."_

" _No," Grelod snarled, but her face was slightly pale._

" _Fine," Ruby turned back to it, "Fus! Ro! Dah!"_

 _Ruby's Voice smashed open the doors, allowing her to see inside. What she_ _ **did**_ _see made her go silent._

 _Three sets of shackles were on the wall, a human child with red hair held by one, "Guard?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _Get him down and to a healer. I'll deal with Grelod."_

 _Ruby waited for everyone but her and one guard to leave… then lunged at Grelod._

\- X **Ruby** X-

Lonán's, as it turned out, was the kind of place Ruby had gotten intimately related with before her first house. A bar and restaurant, probably with bedrooms above. Noticing the still open door to the storage room, Ruby casually pushed it open. Serana stepping in seconds later as Ruby approached the body, "Oof."

"Yeah," Serana said, "Oof."

The body was splayed out over a chair, several hard slashes through his chest, eyes wide and tape over his mouth. Looking down, Ruby winced.

Knees were not meant to bend like that.

"Poor guy," Ruby said quietly, "this wasn't a quick one."

"Think this is another Windhelm case?"

"No," Ruby said, "Calixto's work was a madman in motion, but he knew what he wanted from them. This was different, it wasn't about death, but about sending a message."

"Well," Serana said, "message seen, I suppose?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, "but what's the message in the first place, right?"

"One way to find out, I suppose," Serana said, stepping forward with magicka coiling around her. Holding out both hands, palms up and curved to cup two fistfuls of magicka, she began to chant, "Spirit, hear my call! We beseech you to return to us! For your duty is not yet done, your war not yet won! We call from the mortal coil, leave the warm embrace of Aetherius, wherever you spend it! I call across the ages and realms! To Sovngarde and the Far Shores and every realm between! Return!"

Ruby took a moment to appreciate Serana. Ruby had next to no skill with necromancy, Soul Tear notwithstanding. Even her abysmal skill with restoration magic was better than her necromantic abilities. She was much more comfortable using her conjunction skill to summon Daedra.

Serana, meanwhile, was one of the best necromancers Ruby had met. Her status as a daughter of Coldharbour, as terrible as its source _was_ , empowered Serana's skill in certain branches of magic.

Ruby's fist closed, her fingernails digging into the skin. Damn Molag Bal, damn him so far into the Void that he could never touch _anyone_ like that again.

"Ruby?" The Dragonborn snapped back to reality to see Serana watching her with a slightly worried look through the hunger in her eyes. They were getting to _that_ point again, weren't they? "Is everything alright? You just started growling."

"Yeah," Ruby said, unclenching her fist and letting her Aura seal the small gouges shut.

"Then let's hurry up," Serana said, nodding towards the ghost hanging above his body. Ruby nodded, stepping forwards.

"Can you hear me? Can you see me?"

"I- I can hear you, yes," the ghost said, "I- I'm dead, right?"

"Yes, I'm sorry," Ruby said, "But we're hoping to keep them from doing this again, find out _why_ they're doing it. Can you help us?"

"I-" he cut himself off, turning his head towards something that only he could see as to Ruby, it was a wall, "Yes."

"Who?"

"The White Fang," he said, "I was planning to leave, report to the Mistral and Menagerie chapters that Taurus was acting out of control. They captured me, planned to turn me into a message not to snitch."

"Do you have evidence?" Ruby asked, "We can try to get it there."

"That's- thank you, human," he said, "You are evidence that not all are bad. In my lockbox, under my bed."

"I'm not human," Ruby said, ignoring the spike of sadness that welled up. She wasn't always sure _what_ she was anymore, but it wasn't human. A human's blood didn't sing for destruction, their heart beat for domination.

"You're still a good person," he said, fading.

Serana's arms didn't drop to her side as they normally did after that ritual, instead pulling Ruby into a hug, "You _are_ human."

"No, I'm not," Ruby said, "I'm Dovahkiin."

"You're more human than m-"

"That's not true," Ruby said, "I'm- I'm-"

"Human," Serana said.

"So are you," Ruby mumbled, ignoring the warmth coming from her breast pocket as she pulled away, "C'mon. We need to get that- Oh crap."

"What-?" Serana stopped, staring over Ruby's head.

Slowly, mechanically, Ruby raised her hands as she stared down the group of police officers aiming at them.

\- X **Serana** X-

"I can't believe you got us arrested," Serana said, sitting on the bed in the cell, _"Again."_

" _I_ got us arrested? What did I do?" Ruby complained from where she was seated against the wall.

"You-!" Serana, stopped searching her memory, "Didn't do anything. Sorry."

"It's probably reflex by now," Ruby said, rubbing the spot where the Ring of Hircine would be normally, "It _is_ my fault most of the time."

"But isn't this time," Serana said, "So I'm sorry."

Ruby shrugged, "It's fine, Sera."

"So, what are we doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do we get out of here? Then what do we do?"

"We wait till we're cleared," Ruby said, standing and beginning to pace, "Then we go back, get the lockbox and supplies, then start heading for Mistral."

"We're waiting?" Serana asked, "Don't we normally-?"

"I don't feel like being a wanted criminal," Ruby said, "We'll already probably be trying to outrun Uncle Qrow."

"Does that have anything to do with you wanting to bring this stuff over?"

Ruby stopped, breathing in through the corner of her mouth, creating a hissing noise, "I need time to think, Sera. I'm… I'm scared."

"You're not normally one for running away," Serana chided without much heat. She knew what it was like, to wake up and have everything so turn on its head that getting away from it all seemed like the smart thing to do.

"I'm not running," Ruby protested, "I'm making a tactical withdrawal. If I'm at home, I'm never gonna be able to figure out what to do. I need to get further away, clear my head and figure out how to explain this."

"Well put," Serana tensed at the same moment as Ruby, meeting the brown eyes of the man who stepped into the holding area. Stepping forward, he casually pressed a number into the pad next to the door, "Though I do wonder _what_ exactly 'this' is."

Serana's hair stood on end as the man casually turned away from them, walking towards the door. There were only two kinds of people who would do that, fools and those confident that they could handle any attack from behind.

Something told Serana that it wasn't the former.

Standing up, Serana joined Ruby in following the man out of the holding area and into an office. Shutting the door behind them, he walked around, placing a mug on the table next to a… what had Ruby called them? Scrolls? And a envelope, "Would either of you two like anything to eat? I believe Qrow said you enjoyed cookies, Miss Rose?"

"You know Qrow?"

"Yes, but he is only vaguely aware I am here," the man said, "more particularly, he is aware that I intended to speak to you about your frien-"

"You're not touching Sera," Serana rolled her eyes as Ruby slid in front of her, growling. Taking a step, Serana twisted so she was next to Ruby and discreetly curled one hand, ready to attack.

"I wasn't speaking of Miss…" the man checked the scroll, "Volkihar, is it?"

"Yes," Serana said, "Just call me Serana, everyone does."

"A pleasure," the man said, "I an Ozpin. Headmaster of Beacon Academy. I meant, Miss Rose, of your friendship with several of a group known as the Princes."

Ruby snorted, "I wouldn't call them friendships, with a couple of exceptions. It's a deal, I do errands for them, they give me power."

"Power? Qrow never made you out to be power hungry."

"Power can be used for many things, Ozpin. Protecting others included."

"Interesting," Ozpin said, emptying the envelope and holding up the snarling wolf ring, "And this belongs to one of them?"

"Yeah, and he will be ticked if you don't give it back, cursed the last guy to randomly turn into a wolf."

"Really?" Ozpin asked, examining Ruby's face, "Curious. I'll give it back in due time, Miss Rose. Which one does this belong to?"

"Hircine," Ruby said, "Daedric Prince of the Hunt."

" _Daedric_?" Ozpin said, "That's the first I've heard of that term. If you work with him, I take it you view yourself as a Huntress?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Ozpin said, tapping his chin and looking the ring over before pushing it towards Ruby, who immediately snagged it up and put it back on, "Thank you for being candid with me, Miss Rose. It reveals much."

"Like what?"

"That it isn't that you are uncomfortable talking of these matters at all, but specifically to your family. I would like to make you an offer, a sort of… let us say it's a deal, since you are clearly fond of them."

"What?"

"You were planning to flee to Mistral. _I_ have a visit there coming up, among other places. I will convince Qrow and Tai to allow you to come along, all I ask in return is that you and I meet like this once a week during the trip and you allow me to question you. You would be, of course, free to refuse to answer questions that make you uncomfortable."

"Can we think about it?"

"Will you need long?"

"No, just need to talk."

"Then I will wait for you outside the room," Ozpin said, walking away, "though if you need more time, I won't be departing for a week."

The minute the door shut, Ruby turned to Serana, "What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Serana asked, "This all kinda hinges on you."

"But I want your opinion."

"I don't think he's lying outright," Serana started, "but it seems a bit too convenient. He just happens to be going on this trip?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, "but it's the best way this could go, Dad, Yang and Qrow won't worry."

"And it probably won't take as long?"

"Yeah."

"Then I think we should take it," Serana said.

Ruby nodded, standing, "Then I'll tell him."

Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?


	3. Chapter 3

Ruby grit her teeth, crewing up her eyes as she did her best to ignore the weight on top of her.

Finally, Ruby reached down, tapping Serana's shoulder and grunting, "Lamae."

Ruby winced at the growl, hitting Serena on the shoulder, " _Lamae_!"

Luckily, this time the word seemed to pierce the haze of instincts over Serana's mind, as she opened her jaws, removing the fangs from Ruby's throat with a wet pop. Ruby immediately grabbed the roll of white gauze bandages and began to wrap up the puncture wounds, ignoring the burning around the injury as Bal's curse warred with Hircine's blessing. Her Aura wouldn't be able to heal the damage until after that was done.

Normally, this would be the point where Ruby would start chain drinking restoration potions to counteract the pint or so of blood she was missing. Instead, she had to focusing on calming down her distressed friend, "Sera-"

"Gods," Serana said, flitting around Ruby, "I'm sorry!"

"It's fine," Ruby said.

"I lost control-"

"Serana," Ruby said with a sigh, grabbing her white shirt and buttoning it up. Grabbing the corset, Ruby weighed it for a moment before opening the suitcase and throwing it inside, instead grabbing her red cloak and hooking it, "I said it's fine. We both know-"

"I could have drained you!"

"I'm not completely powerless when we're like this," Ruby rebutted, "I can get you off me if I have to."

"I-" Serana looked down with a blush, "still, we should sto-"

"No," Ruby said bluntly, standing up and grabbing their suitcases, "I'm an adult, Sera. I know the risks, I don't care."

Serana would have looked much more conflicted if not for the trail of Ruby's blood from the corner of her mouth, "But-"

"Sera," Ruby dropped the suitcases, pressing her forehead against Serana's, "I know the risks, Hircine and Meridia will keep me safe, but even if the blessings gave out, I'd still risk it. I love you."

This was probably the only way she would ever get to confess her feelings to the vampire in front of her. Ruby was too scared to otherwise, too frightened that Serana would focus on what Ruby's dragon nature meant.

Even though, a small part whispered, that Ruby was willing to repeatedly lay back and risk death at Serana's jaws proved that Ruby was completely capable of suppressing that nature.

Serana's breath hitched, the cold air stopping for a second before she pressed back, "I love you too."

Ruby stood, grabbing their bags again, "C'mon, Ozpin is gonna be waiting for us."

"Right," Serana nodded, looking slightly flustered as she jumped up, walking with Ruby out of the hotel room and down to their pickup.

Only for Ruby to freeze as they stepped out of the hotel proper and came face to face with her family, and J'Zargo, for the first time in a week. The Khajiit bounded forward, talking under his breath, "J'Zargo is going to return to Winterhold, he misses the moon's dance. Get this one when you are done with this."

"Wai-!" before Ruby could finish, J'Zargo slid down an alley, disappearing with a familiar flash of blue flames, "Bye?"

"So," Qrow rasped, "We should probably get you to Oz, eh?"

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana sat next to Ruby in the car, looking over at the girl and then looking away. Ruby loved her? Like-? No, that was ridiculous. Ruby couldn't possibly-

"So," Tai said casually as they stopped again, his eyes visible in the mirror between him and Qrow. Thank the gods that Serana's particular strand of vampirism didn't disappear from mirrors, "How'd you and Ruby meet, Serana?"

"Oh!" Serana jumped slightly, avoiding hitting Yang in the face by an inch "We- uh-"

"She was stuck in a cave," Ruby said from her spot on Serana's left.

"What were you doing there?"

"Her mom stuck her there," Ruby continued to answer for them, followed by a muttering of Dovahzul.

"Your mom?" Tai asked, "how long were you stuck there?"

"A while," Serana said, "I don't know exactly, just that it was a long time before Ruby saved me."

"Oh," Tai said, sharing a look with Qrow, "and where is your mother now?"

"I'm not sure," she hadn't been at the Soul Cairn when they returned, but nobody had seen her during the fighting either.

"Doesn't sound like a good mom," Yang said.

"She isn't," Ruby said, opening her eyes for the first time since they had climbed into the car. She had been leaned against the door, looking winded and paler than usual, "She's terrible."

"Yeah, she's pretty bad," Serana agreed.

"Pretty bad?" Ruby grumbled, "The only thing that makes her better than your dad is that she isn't completely insane."

Serana rolled her eyes. Ruby had, without fail, made her burning contempt for Serana's mother clear on every possible occasion. Considering how much importance Ruby placed on family, it wasn't all that surprising.

"Are you alright, Rosebud? You don't look so good, maybe you should stay home…"

"I'm fine, Dad," Ruby said, "just tired. I'll sleep on the airship."

Tai looked like he wanted to argue, before sighing, "Ok."

They finally stopped, permanently, and climbed out of the truck, grabbing their bags as they went. Waiting for them at the front of the building was Ozpin and a blond woman.

"I told you they would arrive," Ozpin said to the woman, stepping forwards, "Miss Rose, Miss Volkihar-"

"Serana," the vampire said with a sigh, " _please_."

"Wait, waitwait _wait_ ," Yang laughed, "Your last name us _Volkihar_?"

"Yes," Serana said with another sigh, closing her eyes, "It is."

" _Really_? Vol- OW! What was that for, Rubes?"

"You were being a jerk," Ruby said, crossing her arms.

"We should hurry," Ozpin said, checking his watch, "We've delayed the departure enough as is."

"I'll see you later," Ruby said to her family, before freezing as Tai spread his arms. Breathing in, she briefly hugged her father, before doing the same to her uncle and sister.

Serana hadn't ever had that with her family. Even before 'the incident' on the first Chil'a after her eighteenth birthday, it hadn't felt like that existed. After… after it hadn't taken a sharp turn for the negative as her father's fanatical obsession with vampirism shifted to an obsession with the Tyranny of the Sun.

"We'll see you when you get back," Tai said, before turning to Serana, "Serana. It was nice meeting you."

"I could say the same," she said, shaking his hand and following the group.

"So, how are we getting to Mistral?" Ruby asked.

"Every two years, the ones without the Vytal festival, we take a small group of students to the other kingdoms."

"Why?"

"It's mostly an excuse for the Headmasters to meet," Ozpin said bluntly.

"Ok…" Ruby said, giving the back of Ozpin's head a confused look as they climbed into the airship. Ozpin handed them each a flat card, pointing down one hall, "Your room is down that way. The number is on the envelope."

"Thanks," Ruby said, "When will we…?"

"Two days from now," Ozpin said, "there's a section towards the middle of the day when we won't have connection to the CCT, we'll meet then."

"Ok," Ruby said with a nod.

"There's also a restaurant and bar near the heart of the plane," Ozpin said, "in case either of you want anything, I hope you brought money?"

"Yeah," Ruby held up a wallet.

"Sir!" the woman said sharply, "Miss Rose is too young to-"

"Glynda," Ozpin said, "I'm fairly certain that if Miss Rose wants something to drink, she will find some way to acquire it. I hope I can trust you two to, at least, be responsible?"

"Of course," Serana nodded.

"Then I'll leave you to it," Ozpin said, turning and walking away.

They stood there for a minute before Ruby turned away and started walking towards their room, "I like him, he's cool. I should try being like that at Winterhold."

"You're hardly _at_ Winterhold."

\- X **Coco** X-

Coco leaned forwards, playing with a strand of hair and humming. Finally, she stood up, punching her fist into her hand, "Alright, that's it!"

Yatsuhashi looked up from where he was reading a book, "What's what?"

"What's what?" Coco stared at her teammate like he had lost it, "We're gonna find out about those two!"

'Those two' were the pair of complete unknowns that had shown up on the ship just before lift off and were in the room opposite Team CFVY.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Velvet asked from her spot next to Yatsuhashi.

"Of course I am," Coco nodded, walking towards their door and hitting the button to open it. Strolling across the hall, Coco reached out to knock when-

"-I'm going down to the restaurant," the taller woman said, "want anything?"

"Mead!"

"Anything to eat?" she asked around the thinking of something.

"Meat!" This time, the voice was muffled by something.

"Right, I- oh, hello."

"Hi?" Coco said. Now that she was face to face with the woman, and the hunger in her eyes, Coco briefly wondered why she thought this was a good idea.

"What were you doing in front of our door?"

"I wanted to talk, you know?"

"Ok…?"

"You said you were going to get something to eat, right? Mind if I come with? It is getting to that time."

"No?"

"Cool. I'm Coco, by the way."

"Serana."

"Who is that?" Coco asked, tipping her head towards the room Serana had just walked out of, "Little Sister?"

"Little si-" Serana's voice cut off, her pale skin turning an amusing color of green, "No!"

"Girlfriend?"

"I- I- no-" This time, Serana's pale skin flushed.

"But you'd like her to be?"

"I- I'm- why do you want to know?"

"I like gossip," Coco said lightly, "Now?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because you already have," Coco said, "You're dodging the question, so you do."

"So what if I do?"

"So nothing," Coco shrugged, "Does she know?"

"No! And she can't!"

"Why?"

"Because- because-"

"Because?"

"Because I don't deserve her," Serana said, deflating, "Ok? It's as simple as that."

"Not really," Coco said, "What if she wants you?"

"I- she doesn't."

"Ok, then," Coco said, walking into the restaurant, "I'm gonna go get something to eat. We should hang out once we hit Mistral, Serana."

"Uh- sure?"

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana watched the girl walk towards the restaurant before turning towards the bar and approaching the bartender. The black haired man was in the middle of handing a tray of tiny glasses to a student, "There you go!"

"Thanks," the boy, who looked to be a year or two older than Serana (physically) was, downed one, before bursting into a coughing fit, "That's, that's strong!"

"You asked for the strongest I have," the bartender said with an accent that seemed vaguely Breton, slicking back his black hair, "That's what that is."

"The normal bartender doesn't have anything like this."

"If the normal bartender is anywhere near me, it's time for me to retire. You want something lighter?"

"No," the boy waved him off, grabbing the tray and walking off, "I'm fine."

"He's in for a rough morning," the bartender chuckled before turning to Serana, "Hey! Sorry for the wait, what can I get ya?"

"Mead," Serana said, sitting down.

"Someone's got good taste," the bartender grabbed a bottle from the rack behind him before reaching under the bar and revealing another bottle, "This one's on the house."

"It's gonna take a lot more than that to get under m-"

"Oh, no," the bartender laughed, "No, no, no, no. You're practically the definition of off limits, Serana. Go ahead, try it."

Serana gave the bartender a slightly paranoid look before opening the bottle and taking a swig.

Only to come inches from spitting it out as, instead of the taste of some form of alcohol, the heady taste of blood reached her tongue, briefly lulling the vampire into a familiar haze. One that, on some level, Serana had come to associate with Ruby. Ruby, who regularly let Serana latch onto her and feed.

Ruby, who very nearly had to resort to violence to remove Serana from that spot because she had lost control and couldn't recognize what the warm, delicious blood sack was saying.

At the, Serana slammed the half empty bottle onto the bar, maybe with a bit more force than she intended, and desperately wanted to vomit the blood back up. They _knew_ it was dangerous, they had set up safety measures specifically for that, and Serana had ignored them. How were they ever supposed to try that again whe-

"Hey, hey," the bartender reached out, clasping Serana's shoulder, "calm down, calm down. Everything is fine."

"No, it really isn't- I-"

"Calm down, lass, everything is _fine_. Trust me, I'm good with these things."

"But- I-"

"You overindulged, it happens to the best of your kind. Ashpit, I'd say it's a _good thing_ , next time this happens, you're gonna be a lot more careful to avoid hurting her, right?"

"Right."

"Then calm down, finish your drink! No permanent harm was done, you learned a lesson, yadayada moral yada!"

"When in Oblivion is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," the bartender grabbed a bottle off the rack, upending it and downing the clear liquid inside with impressive ease, "No one ever gives a damn about the moral, so let's skip that. Least, that's how things normally go for me."

"Who _are_ you?" Serana asked, meeting the man's black eyes.

"Where's the fun in just telling you?" He asked with a grin, "My niece seems to think you're smart, now's your chance to prove it."

"I don't think I know your niece," Serana said, carefully sliding her hand under her cloak and wrapping it around the dagger sheathed at the small of her back.

"You do," the man said, "she gave you that knife."

Serana's grip on the dagger became uncomfortable as he said that. _Ruby_ had given her the dagger, "Who. Are. You?"

"Guess," he said with a cocky grin, black eyes now red, "It isn't that hard."

"I-" Serana felt what little blood she had in her sink form her face, "Wait…"

"I'm waiting," he said with a wider grin.

"How did you know-"

"What? That you're one of Bal's unfortunates? That you know Little Rose? That you _feed_ off her?" the man asked, a red outline appearing across his face, "I'm-

"Hey!" Serana breathed a sigh of relief as Coco appeared from the crowd that had been forming, looking between the two, "Is he bugging you?"

"Not at all," the bartender said, "She's friends with a relative of mine, just a bit of an argument between friends. Here," he pushed the bottles towards Serana, "sorry if I rilled ya up. Tell Ruby her Uncle Sam says hi, would you?"

Serana grabbed the bottles, turning and walking away as quickly as possible. Coco jogged to keep up with her, "You want me to deal with him?"

"No," Serana said, "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

The duo lapsed into silence for the rest of the walk, finally stopping before their rooms. Coco turned to Serana with a nod, "See you tomorrow?"

"Maybe," Serana said, opening her door and walking in. Ruby was sprawled out on the bed, watching a fight on the screen on one wall, "What's that?"

"It's- are you alright?"

"What do you mean?"

"You seem tense."

"Don't worry about it," Serana said, handing Ruby her bottle, "I forgot to get your food."

"It's alright," Ruby said with a grin, "I found a thing for room service when I was looking for the remote. You want anything?"

"I'll take something rare, if they have it. What was this?"

"Some Mistralan tournament," Ruby's grin grew, "I hope we find the winner while we're there, she seems strong."

\- X **Ruby** X-

Ruby stepped into the office, whistling as she did, "Wooow."

"Thank you, Miss Rose," Ozpin said from his place at the desk, gesturing to the chair opposite him, "Please, take a seat."

"Sure," Ruby said, walking around, "Gotta say, I didn't think Beacon had something like this."

"We are, technically, an autonomous entity beyond the Kingdoms," Ozpin said, "though this actually belongs to the Academies in general. Hence the size, by the time we get to Vacuo, it will be full almost to the brim."

"You sure you don't need me and Serana to get out and walk? We can."

"Not quite _that_ full," Ozpin said, "and speaking of Miss Volkihar, where is she?"

"She stayed in the room," Ruby said, "and can you _please_ just call her Serana? She's barely got anything to do with those jerkbags."

Well, other than being one of the only Volkihar vampires still in existence after Isran and the Dawnguard wede finished.

"I see," Ozpin said, "Is it fine with you if we pick up where we left off last week?"

"Where was that?"

"Hircine."

"Oh, yeah," Ruby said, "Sure."

"You mentioned him cursing someone to turn into a wolf. Is that what happened to you?"

Ruby stopped halfway to her chair, "Sorry?"

"Qrow found you at Summer's grave," Ozpin explained, "he wasn't close enough to hear much of what you said, before you worry, but he saw you change."

"Oh," Ruby sighed, feeling the weight disperse as quickly as it came, "it depends. I don't see it as a curse, but I knew someone who did."

"Really? Who was that?"

"Kodlak Whitemane, he was in charge of the pack when I first turned," Ruby closed her eyes with a sigh, "He was a good man, wise. If I live to be half the woman he thought I could become-" Ruby cut herself off the with a choked cough.

"I'm… sorry for your loss," Ozpin said, "I didn't mean to-"

"No," Ruby shook her head, running a hand through her hair, "The Old Man's in a better place now. Anything else?"

"You said pack, that implies there's more of you?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, "Three in ours, gods only know how many out. There's a couple to become one."

"Like?"

"Being bitten or drinking the blood of one. It's not nearly as different as there are versions of the transformation. Some only change when the moons are a certain phase, or at random. We're lucky, we never _need_ to transform, it just gets harder to sleep the longer we go without hunting."

"An interesting version for something that's supposed to be a curse," Ozpin observed.

"Like I said, it depends on who you ask," Ruby said with a shrug, "Some people would say turning into something that looks like a Grimm _is_ a curse."

"Fair enough," Ozpin said, "Changing topics, last time, you mentioned a word 'Daedric', what does it mean?"

"'Not-our-ancestors'," Ruby said.

"Interesting," Ozpin repeated, making a note, "How many princes are there, do you know?"

"Seventeen."

"Next question. Who owns Spellbreaker?"

"Peryite," Ruby answered, "Daedric Prince of Tasks, Natural Order and Disease. We only met once."

"That's interesting," Ozpin said, "Might I ask you one last question for today?"

"Sure."

"Would you be willing to transform?" Ozpin asked, leaning forwards, "I'm-"

"Not right now," Ruby said, "I really don't want to ruin these clothes, and it's tiring."

"Of course," Ozpin leaned back, "Perhaps some other time?"

"Once we're on the ground," Ruby said, "It's always fun to stretch my legs in a new place."

"Thank you, Miss Rose."

\- X **Raven** X-

Raven tilted her head as she watched the contents of the yearly Beacon trip be unloaded, eyes scanning for anyone who might make a good recru- NO!

Step out of the ship, talking to a hooded woman, was Summer's daughter. Just watching her caused Raven's stomach to do the bird equivalent of roiling.

Not, as some might expect, because this was the daughter of one of her best friends and her ex-husband, but because of how much she had _changed_. Raven had watched them a little over three months ago, trying to work up the courage to say anything to… well, any of them.

The girl of three months ago was a socially awkward, baby faced and bright eyed teen. The girl Raven was watching, wasn't any of those.

Well, she was a teen and she might still be social awkward for all Raven knew, but everything else caused Raven's feathers to stand on edge. Spreading her wings, Raven took off briefly, repositioning herself so she could make sure her eyes hadn't deceived her.

They hadn't. Summer's daughter was standing, and walking, differently. The type of walk that made it clear she was, in some part of her mind, waiting for an attack. Not paranoidal, just ready for if it came.

Starting at the right corner of her mouth and extending until it disappeared into her hairline was an old, deep scar. One that shouldn't have had time to heal as much as it had.

She broke off from her friend, walking to Ozpin and having brief conversation, gesturing to the rucksack on her back. At Ozpin's nod, her and her friend broke off from the group.

And Raven, unable to resist her curiosity, followed.

\- X **Ruby** X-

Ruby watched the bird, leaning towards Serana, "Hey, Sera?"

"Yes?"

"Is it just me, or is that bird following us?"

Serana's eyes jumped to the large raven on the rooftop near them. Once they were almost out of its sight, it took off, landing near them, "It does."

"Think we should be worried?"

"I think we can let it go," Serana said, "at least until we're done with the White Fang."

Ruby nodded, relaxing her arm, "Right then."

"That reminds me," Serana said, "How _do_ you intend to get a meeting with the leader of the White Fang on such short notice?"

"Same way I get meetings anywhere."

"Walk in, demand to see them, then ignore whoever refuses and go find them anyways?"

"Yeeep!"

"That's gonna backfire on us one of these days," Serana said with a sigh.

Ruby stuck her tongue out at Serana, "hasn't yet!"

"That doesn't mean it won't eventually," Serana deadpanned.

"Do you _know_ how friggin' busy I am, Sera?"

"Considering I'm dragged along and _equally_ busy?"

"I don't time to sit around waiting for someone to be willing to see me," Ruby continued unperturbed, "Since _apparently_ people got it into their head that 'Dovahkiin' translates to 'errand girl'."

Serana gave an irritated sigh, "Can we _please_ do things my way for once?"

"Fine," Ruby pouted, "then you should probably do the talking."

"Probably," Serana said as they reached the White Fang base, "Do you want to come in or wait out here?"

"I'll wait," Ruby said with a wave, leaning against the wall as Serana walked inside. Focusing on the raven, Ruby narrowed her eyes, "Now, about you…"

The bird tilted its head, croaking slightly. After a several minute long staring contest, an idea hit Ruby.

"Laas. Yah. Nir," Ruby whispered, watching the aura rise off the raven. Examining it, Ruby growled. That wasn't a bird, _that wasn't a bird_!

"Ruby," Serana stepped out of the building, "We have a meeting scheduled for a few of days from now. I told you we didn't need t-"

"Cool," Ruby said, not really paying attention and instead walking straight towards the bird with the soul of a sentient creature. The bird took off as Ruby lunged at it, "Now, about you-!"

"Ruby!" Serana called, "Sto-"

"No you don't!" Ruby said, sweeping her arm forwards. In its wake, strands of blue Magick flew into the air, forming a net around the bird, "You don't get to leave until I learn who you are!"

The net closed around the bird as the magicka turned to ice. Ruby gripped one strand, ignoring the burning around her hand, and ripping the entire prison down. As it smashed into the ground, razor sharp shards of ice flipping into the air, Ruby charged through it. Grabbing the bird, Ruby felt it squirm in her hands before expanding.

The woman that had been a bird drove her foot into Ruby's midriff, sending the Dovahkiin flying back. Ruby pushed herself up, spitting out a mouthful of bile and spittle.

Standing across from her, looking irritated, was a black haired woman with red eyes. One who looked familiar, "Do you normally charge random birds?"

"Random birds don't track people for half an hour and have human souls," Ruby said, trying to figure out why she looked familiar. She kinda looked like an angry Yang, if Yang had black ha- _son of a gun_ , "You!"

The woman stepped back and reached for the sword on her hip as Ruby stomped towards her, "Wha-?"

Slowly, Ruby took a hissing breath of air, feeling herself slip into 'that mode' again, "You! You! YOU!"

"Ruby!" Serana called, but also took a step _back_ , "What's-?"

"That's Qrow's sister, Yang's mom!" Ruby breathed in, feeling like her blood had turned to ice, "And I'm bringing her home!"

"You don't want this figh-"

"No, I think I do," Ruby stood, feeling the dragon necklace burn again her skin, "Do you know how badly you abandoning them hurt Dad? Hurt Yang?"

"You do realize you wouldn't even _exist_ if I hadn't-"

"So you know who I am," Ruby stepped forward again, "or think that you do."

"You are-"

"Ruby Rose!" Ruby barked, walking towards Raven, "Ysmir! Strundu'ul! Dovahsebrom! Mon Summer Rose, Tai-Yang Xiao Long Ahrk Akatosh!"

"What the hell?" Raven asked as the world rippled with each word of Dovahzul, taking a guarded step backwards.

"I'm taking you back," Ruby said, continuing her slow walk towards Raven, "And you won't leave until you've spoken to them."

"I don't-" Raven started, something red starting to form in the wake of her sword.

"Iiz! Slen! Nus!" Ruby's roar cut Raven off, freezing her solid. Stepping towards her, Ruby growled, "I hate people like her."

"Why?" Serana asked.

"Because," Ruby shook her head, "I- I never got to know my mom, Serana. Not really. But it was for a good cause, she died trying to _protect_. This, she abandoned Yang. Why? What could _possibly_ justify that?"

Serana didn't answer.

"Well?"

"I don't know," Serana said, "but if she's anything like _my_ parents, I'd be happy she wasn't around."

"But-" Ruby turned to Serana, "If she was like that, why wouldn't Dad just _tell_ Yang? I- What the-?"

Ruby turned as a sea of flame rushed towards her, breathing in-

\- X **Raven** X-

Raven staggered up as the pillar of flames coiled around where Summer's daughter had stood, brushing off the shards of ice and turning to the other girl, "I'm sorry about this-"

"No you aren't," she said, sounding surprisingly calm for someone whose friend just got incinerated.

Raven didn't pay that any mind, "But I can't leave any evidence of th-"

"Of what?" Raven had just enough time to turn before a hand latched onto her face, dragging her forward with a barked, "Wuld! Nah! Kest!"

Raven had just enough time to clench her teeth before the back of her head collided with a building. A knee drove into her gut shortly after, followed by two more.

Gripping her ōdachi, Raven pulled the trigger, forcing Summer's daughter back as flames followed in the blade's wake. The girl's eyes jumped between the sword and sheath, "Variable length ōdachi? That's a rare one."

"You use a scythe as your primary weapon!" the other girl called, slinking away from the fight.

"You get the point!" Summer's daughter called over her shoulder, before exploding into flower petals and dodging the next strike. Reforming just far enough away that Raven would have to leave herself open to pull off an attack, she turned to Raven, "We could have done this the easy way, now we have to do it the _hard_."

"It isn't much of a fight," Raven said, "You don't have any weapon."

"If you believe that makes a difference," the girl said, "You really _don't_ know a thing about our family."

" _Your_ family," Raven rebuked, "not mine."

"Really? When did that happen?" the seething rage had slipped back into her voice, "Was it when you were on a team with Dad for four years? Or when you were pregnant? Or maybe when you _up and ditched them_? Yol!"

Raven dodged the spurt of fire only for the girl to appear in her guard in another burst of rose petals, driving her flame covered fist into Raven's sternum. Raven, in turn, brought her sword's hilt down on the girl's head, "Did Ozpin put you up to this?"

"Why would he?" she said with a growl, "This is all _ME_!"

At that word strands of blue energy flew from the girl, attempting to wrap around Raven. Raven drove her knee into the girl's chin with a growl, sending her rolling back, "Did you think the same trick would work twice?"

"Who said it was the same trick?" when the girl stood, there was a singled edged sword made of green metal, a strange tendrel wrapping around the lower part in one hand, " _I_ never said it was the same trick!"

Raven span, switching blades on the fly to absorb the crackling energy. As she did, Raven felt a blade rake across her back, absorbed by her Aura. Spinning again, Raven deflected the sword with the flat of her blade, "You know, you're actually decent."

"I've had a while to train!" Ruby stomped, driving her right hand into Raven's chest with an explosive burst of lightning, "but I'm also a natural! Vey!"

Raven's Aura flashed at the foreign word as she landed in a runner's crouch. sheathing the blade, Raven swapped it for an ice blade and dashed at Ruby.

Ice formed around her arm, covering it and making it look like her sword was fused to it. Raven knew it was probably a bad idea to go as far as she had...

But she also knew that in a fight between Maidens, holding back was a death sentence. And considering the amount of magic Ruby had thrown around, there was little doubt in Raven's head she was a Maiden.

"Ice?" Ruby asked with a laugh, "Sovngarde take you! I've lived through winters that you couldn't believe! Ice doesn't scare me."

"Well," Raven said, feeling the energy start to rise off her eyes, "maybe you _should_!"

Raven exploded forwards, wind wrapping around her blade as she tore into Ruby. The younger Maiden was left backpedaling, failing to block every other strike as Raven's body became a whirlwind of slashes, ice crawling up the wounds. Then Ruby stopped, breathing in, "Fus-"

"No you don't!" Raven roared, forming a layer of ice over her mouth, "I'm not-"

"-Ro Dah!" Ruby finished, a wave of pure force shattering the ice and sending Raven skidding back. Raven lifted her sword arm, feeling wind start to spiral around it.

Thrusting her arm forwards, Raven smirked as the tempest crashed into Ruby sending her crashing through one of the buildings. Walking towards it, Raven ignored the Faunus family sitting in front of a shattered table.

Ruby sat up slowly, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth only to freeze as she stared at it, "I'm bleeding…"

"Which means your Aura is down," Raven said, "Surrender now and I mi-"

She was cut off as Ruby unleashed a giddy laugh, staggering upright, "I'm _bleeding_! Now it's a real fight! Yol! Toor! Shul!"

Raven dodged out of the way of the gout of flames, closing one eye against the ambient heat, "Don't be stupi-"

"Wuld!" Raven curled around the fist in her gut, coughing violently. Were all the gut shots Ruby's retribution for earlier? "Yol!"

Raven winced as the ice around her hand melted and turned to steam, leaving her Aura to try and resist the burns. Swinging straight, Raven watched Ruby's head move to the side with a loud crack. Ruby staggered back with a dazed look on her face.

One Raven was fully willing to capitalize on. Raven switched blades, creating a prison of hissing wind around Ruby as she did. Drawing her blade, Raven watched the winds ignite and Ruby disappeared in a ball of fire.

Raven took a moment to catch her breath, staring at the dissipating flames. That fight had been… it had actually been _hard_.

"Well, Qrow, Tai," Raven muttered, "it might not be much of a consolation, but you raised a damn fine fighter."

It was too bad she couldn't see reaso-

"Mul! Qah! Diiv!"

No _fucking_ way.

The flames finally finished fading, showing Ruby standing in the center, a heavy brass shield hovering in front of her before it dropped to the ground and dissolved. That wasn't nearly as alarming as what had happened to the girl herself.

Her irises were yellow, her pupils slitted and scalea black. Red energy floated off her like wings, equally red scale markings on every part of her visible body. Raven raised her blade, tense, "You-"

"Fo! Krah! Diin!" Raven swung her sword, fire clashing with the wave of ice. Raven switched her blade the moment she heard the start of the next cry, "Yol! Tor! Shul!"

Raven rushed forward, swinging for Ruby… only for a hand to impact the blunt edge of the sword, forcing it down, "That is _enough_!"

Raven blinked at Ozpin, wondering where he had come from as his grip on her sword grew tighter, his cane deflecting Ruby's attack, "Wha-"

"Do you two _know_ how much destruction you caused? How much more _could have_ happened, had Serana hadn't the mind to come find me when this _stupidity_ started?"

"She-!"

"I don't _care_ who started it, Miss Branwen," Ozpin said, raising his voice for what felt like the first time since Raven met him, "What I care about is the lives of the people you both put at risk! You are both coming back to Haven with me and you aren't leaving until I find out what the _hell_ happened here!"

"You can't-!"

"Try me, Raven," Ozpin said, "This isn't something you can just run from, even if I have to track down your entire tribe to get to you, I will find out about all of this. Including why you have those abilities-"

Shit. If Ozpin knew, it was only a matter of time until _she_ knew.

"-and as for you, Miss Rose," Ozpin turned to the other combatant, staring at her, "I don't know what you think you're doing, but if you don't stop trying to go through me, I _will_ respond with all force necessary to stop you."

"Is that a-"

"Ruby!" the other girl marched over from a small collection of students, dragging Ruby away from Ozpin and Raven, "the fight is over. Calm down!"

"She's-"

"Damnit," she growled, latching her hands to the side of Ruby's face and forcing the younger girl to look at her, muttering something under her breath. Slowly, Ruby staggered backwards, leaning against the nearest building.

"Gods," Ruby moaned, "I lost control again, didn't I?"

"Well, that makes us one for one," Serana said, "but to answer your question. Yes, you did."

"On a scale of Thalmor attack to Kodlak, how bad?"

"Closer to the latter, I'd say. Though I obviously-"

"-I know," Ruby moaned again, "I feel like I got thrown through a wall."

"You _did_ get thrown through a wall," Raven reminded her.

"Oh, yeah," Ruby muttered, sagging, "Owwwwww."

"I'm taking her back to Haven," Serana said to Ozpin, hoisting Ruby to her feet, "She's- yeah."

"Where's Erandur when you need him?" Ruby asked pitifully from where she was draped over her friend.

"Not nearby," Serana said, continuing to carry Ruby out. Halfway to the crowd, a large, student in a green robe and shaved hair pushed his way over, talking with Serana before lifting Ruby into a bridal carry.

"I never said they could go," Ozpin said, sounding more amused than anything.

\- X **AN** X-

Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?


	4. Chapter 4

Ruby lay on the bed in Proudspire Manor, waiting for Erandur's spells to fade. The Dunmer stood over her, Magicka radiating from his hands, "Mother Mara, Ruby."

"That bad?" Ruby chuckled.

"By most people's standards, this would be horrific," Erandur said, "By yours, it somehow manages to be more and less. I'll be right back."

"Right," Ruby said, staring at the ceiling as he disappeared. Finally, Ruby sighed, "Go ahead."

"What?" Serana asked from where she was seated near the desk.

"Just say it. I know."

"Why did you hold back so much? I saw the destruction, you barely cast spells and held back with the shouts until the end."

"I didn't want to kill her," Ruby said, omitting that she was also still woozy from the loss of her blood to Serana. She really didn't need to give her friend more reason to oppose Ruby letting her drink, "I was thinking like she didn't have an Aura, so I just kinda…"

"Aventus!" Erandur called from the hall outside the doorway, "Avent-"

"What is it, Uncle Erandur?" Aventus's voice grew closer with every word.

"I need you to run down to Angeline's with this list, tell her I need these things as soon as possible and to put it on the Proudspire tab."

"Right."

"That's a good lad," Erandur said, before walking in, "Right then, sit up, would you?"

"Yeah," Ruby pushed herself up.

"I need to warn you," Erandur said, handing her the first vial, "this is going to be a long night."

"It's, like, three," Ruby said, downing it.

"Exactly," Erandur said before he turned to Serana, "May I ask for your help with preparing some things?"

"Of course," Serana said, disappearing out of the room with Erandur.

"Wai-" Ruby started to call, before sinking back against the headboard with a sigh. Reaching over, Ruby grabbed her Scroll off the bedside table and activated it. Turning on a movie, Ruby started to lean back, only to stop as something caught her eye, the shadows whispering in her ear, "Blaise…"

"Ah!" the Breton jumped slightly, unintentionally revealing himself further, "How do you-?"

"Always know? It's a secret," Ruby said, turning, "Come on, you don't need to hide out there."

"Jordis said not to disturb you," Blaise said, walking into the room.

"Jordis is just doing her job," Ruby said, "but her job is also listening to me, so she won't bother you."

"Right," Blaise said walking into the room and sitting in the chair next to Ruby's bed. Blaise squirmed for a second before blurting out, "What happened?"

"What?"

"I mean," Blaise continued, "You normally don't get hurt like this!"

"I underestimated someone," Ruby said, "It won't happen again."

"I hope not," Blaise said, "I already don't like it when you disappear for a while, M- Ruby."

"What? Why?" Ruby asked, frowning in confusion.

"I-" Blaise looked down, "I'm worried you're going to end up like my old parents."

Well, that made things infinitely more complicated. Blaise was in a land of people who believed dying in battle was honorable, that he should be proud his parents died in the Legion.

Ruby reached out, scratching Blaise's head. Blaise closed his eyes, leaning into the touch, "Hey, there's no need to worry, Blaise. People who can fight an underestimating me are in short supply."

The minute Ruby finished saying that, she wanted to kick herself. Yeah, she was powerful, but assuming she could just win a fight was exactly why she was sitting in a bed.

"But it still hurts," Blaise said, "I don't want to lose you too."

"I already have everything set up for if something happens," Ruby said, "Falk knows you're supposed to be allowed to keep living here, he'll take care of managing the money I lea-"

"I don't want here," Blaise said, "and I don't care about the money. I'm scared of losing _you_."

That took the wind out of Ruby's sails. What? Why? She just, she, "Blaise…"

"I know it's selfish," Blaise said, "I know you're out there helping people, but I wish you were here more. It's nice with Uncle Erandur and Aunt Jordis, but I miss you. It feels like we're a real family when you're here. You're- nevermind."

That left Ruby feeling like Raven had just hit her upside the head again, "Blaise, I-"

"Sorry," Blaise apologized, "I just, I want to get that off my chest. I know you don't-"

"Blaise," Ruby said to the boy, "I just, I never realized you thought that way. It's, that's my fault. I can't make any promises I'll be around more, it really depends on where I get jobs, but I will try to be here more often."

"You will?" Blaise seemed to inflate at the words, face shining.

"Yea-" Ruby winced as Blaise threw his arms around her, but made sure not to yelp. Moving over slightly, Ruby helped Blaise onto the bed, turning on her scroll, expanding it and starting a movie, "C'mon, I got something to show you."

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana quirked an eyebrow at Erandur from their spot in the living room. The Dunmer looked vaguely amused, lips quirked, "So, you got tired of waiting for Ruby to get the message?"

"Assuming she's ever going to get it," Erandur said, "With the way Ruby is, I wouldn't be surprised if she never notic- thank you, Jordis."

"It's nothing," the housecarl said, joining them around the table with a mug of the, generally horribly expensive but barely a drop in Ruby's coffers, coffee she had finished brewing, "Weren't you supposed to be working on something?"

"With the ingredients we don't have?" Erandur asked in amusement, "Blaise has been lurking around since Serana and Ruby arrived. I thought it best to allow them to what's the term Ruby would use…?"

"Talk it out?" Serana offered.

"That's the one!" Erandur said.

"I wish Ruby wasn't so dense sometimes," Serana said as she unstoppered a bottle next to her own drink, pouring a healthy dose of blood into the black liquid.

"Don't be so harsh on her," Erandur chided without any real heat, "she reminds me of what I've read about Demiprinces, if more subdued."

"Demiprince?" Jordis asked.

"The union of a Daedric Prince and a mortal-"

"Thanks," Serana said under her breath, "because I always wanted to know I could have gotten pregnant with Bal's spawn."

"My apologies," Erandur said, reaching out and silently gripping the outside of her hand.

"It's fine," Serana said, "though let's make sure Ruby doesn't find out about that, ok? She's already… I don't know, weird when it comes to me and Bal."

Jordis and Erandur eyes met before they nodded. That got Serana suspicious, "You two knows what's up, don't you."

"As I was saying," Erandur continued hastily, "They-"

"What's going on?" Serana asked again, "If it's about me-"

"It's only about you by proxy," Erandur said, "much more about Ruby and Bal-"

"-I deserve to know," Seana finished.

"You see," Jordis said, coughing, "it has to do with her nature…"

"Stop dancing around the point," Serana said, feeling herself get more exasperated by the second.

"Dragons are creatures of Domination," Erandur finished, "like Bal. Ruby feared that if you knew, you would no longer wish to be associated."

"What," how the _hell_ had Ruby kept that a secret? Parthulax hadn't mentioned that when he gave an overview of Dovahkiin to Serana.

"Oh, we know," Erandur sighed.

"That's ridiculous!"

"The part about Dragons or about you-"

"Me!" Serana said, cutting Jodis off, "I know Ruby's not like him, anyone who isn't blind could see that. I'm not going to abandon her because of something like that, I-"

-love her, Serana barely stopped from blurting out, scared that saying it would make things too real. She loved Ruby, enough that something as small as that would never cause her to abandon Ruby.

"We know," Erandur said, "but Ruby is Ruby. She has enough trouble navigating through normal situations, something as complicated as the relationship between you two is probably one step behind realizing that she is functionally Blaise and Aventus's mother on things she doesn't know how to navigate. That's what I meant."

"What…?"

"Demiprinces have incredibly narrow domains, though they often rival their parent in how skilled they are in their domain. The most famous is a scion of Boethiah known as The Multiplier of Motions Known, who is unparalleled at swordplay, but hardly capable of anything else. Ruby isn't quite so shackled, she is capable of basic functioning, even if she struggles with actually interacting with normal people, but she nonetheless tends towards the lethal and destruction. I'm surprised she was even capable of fighting to capture."

"She doesn't do it much, does she?" Serana asked.

"No, she doesn't," Erandur said, "Which explains in part why she's currently confined to her bed."

"What's the other part?"

"That she doesn't truly need to," Erandur said, "but I'm letting her stew. Perhaps next time, she won't hold back so much."

\- X **Tai** X-

Tai got out of his truck with a sigh, before carefully wrapping his hand in a cloth and picking up Dawnbreaker.

Nothing. Days of testing and they still didn't know what the hell this thing actually was. What metal it was made of (if it even was metal. Carmine had briefly mentioned that from what they were able find it seem like it was made of volcanic glass or pure Dust), why it had a star in it, how it even _could_ hold said star.

And perhaps most curiously, they still couldn't figure out why nobody other than Ruby could handle it without being burned. Ozpin's explanation had still been rather lacking.

Holding the sword like it was a dead animal, Tai cared opened the door to the house stepping inside and-

Giving a startled yelp as Yang rushed towards him, the sword slipped from his hands and sinking into the wood floor with a heavy thunk. Yang stopped, panting, "Living room, now!"

"Yang-" Tai was cut off as Yang grabbed his hand, yanking him towards the living room.

"Living room," Yang repeated, voice cracking, " _now_!"

"Yang is someth-" Tai's voice stopped as he caught sight of the video projected from the TV.

More particularly, as the news camera focused on the fight going on. Crouched on the ground, one arm covered with ice and wind curling around it, was Raven Branwen. Tai felt a garbled gasp come from his mouth as he staggered over to the couch and sank down onto it.

She was crouched in the middle of a thoroughly trashed street, the one just visible behind her equally ruined. The camera zoomed out as the wind grew worse, sending rubble behind her flying back. Reaching out, Tai grabbed the remote and hit the unmute button.

"-mated winds of a hundred and twelve hours," the far too excited voice of Cyril Ian said, "We're still not sure what type of Dust she was using, but I don't think I've ever seen anything like it!"

Raven lunged forward, clearing the gap between her and- someone. Yang breathed in next to him as they went smashing into the house at the end of the street, "No…"

"What?" Tai said, turning to his too pale daughter, "Yang is something wro-"

"YOL!" Tai froze, turning towards the screen as an all too familiar voice called that out, "TOOR! SHUL!"

Raven dodged a stream of fire, only for Ruby to skid out of the house, several tears in her clothes, "What is she-?"

"WULD!" Ruby roared, suddenly exploding forward and driving her fist into Raven's stomach. Cricking her neck Ruby unleashed a burst of fire with a cry of, "YOL!"

"Do you have any idea how she could do that, Professor?"

"Well you see," Peter's voice came across, "It could be several things. Dust Specialists would do many, _many_ strange and often dangerous things to hide their supply. For example, she might have eat-"

"Ruby isn't a Dust specialist," Yang said.

"What about the words?" Cyril asked.

"I can't be sure," Peter said, "But Semblance are often strange beasts. While generally requiring physical components, like the Schnee family's movements, she could use voc-"

Tai stopped paying attention as he watched Ruby stagger back. Jumping to his feet, Tai felt a horrified yell rising up as Raven swung her sword, a ball of fire covering his daughter, "NO!"

Tai couldn't look away as Raven sheathed her sword, turning away from the fading fireball as Yang let out a strangled sob behind him. Raven had… had…

"MUL! QAH! DIIV!" Tai's heart restarted as Ruby's voice rang out. Energy rising off her as Spellbreaker fell to the ground. She took one step forward, then another as Raven redrew her sword and raised it, "FO! KRAH! DIIN!"

Tai let out a relieved laugh as he fell backwards, barely aware enough to pay attention to the rest of the fight… then it sobered, "Wait…"

"How'd Ruby do those things?" Yang asked the question that had just dawned on Tai.

"I," Tai frowned, "I don't know, but we _will_ find out when she gets home."

\- X **Raven** X-

Raven sat in the chair, stewing as Ozpin paced in front of her. Finally, the headmaster stopped, turning to Raven, "Well?"

"Wha-" Raven started, only to stop as Ozpin's grip on his cain grew tight. This evidently wasn't a time where she could get away with antagonize the headmaster, "-t do you want to know?"

"How long?" Ozpin asked.

"Nine years."

"And you didn't think to inform me?"

"Why should I have?" Raven shot back, "I thought I made it clear, Ozpin. I don't want anything to do with your war."

"If you didn't want anything to do with it," Ozpin hissed, "You shouldn't have become a Maiden!"

"Is that a threat?" Raven asked.

"No, it's a _fact_!" Ozpin continued, "She wants the Relics, to get the Relics, she needs the Maidens. By becoming one, you have irrevocably bound yourself to this war."

Raven faltered at that, before hardening her resolve, "She won't attack me."

"And why is that?" Ozpin asked, "What possible motive could keep Salem from coming after you, Raven? Please, inform me. I'm _dying_ to know."

Raven swallowed, mouth dry. She was starting to suspect that she had pushed Ozpin too far this time, "If she wants the relic, she needs me-"

"-She needs the _Spring Maiden_ ," Ozpin cut Raven off, voice barely above a whisper, "Whether or not that be _you_ does not apply. Do you know how much you risked by keeping this from me? How many lives you risked?"

"I don't ca-" Raven stopped as Ozpin lunged forward, his staff clattering to the ground as he slammed his hands onto the desk.

"Well maybe you should _start_ ," Ozpin said, "let me spell out for you, in detail, how many ways this foolishness could have gone wrong, Raven."

"I-"

"First," Ozpin said, "It relies on Salem not tracking the last Spring Maiden to your location. Then it requires her somehow abandoning a goal she has had longer than half the people in this school's age _combined_. From there, she must decide that you are more worth to her alive than dead, which, considering your _compulsive_ defiance when it comes to the war, there is the chance she will either kill you or capture you until she can find a suitable recipient for the Maiden's power-"

"Ozpin-" Raven stopped, turning to see Ruby leaning in the doorway, apparently unharmed.

"-Even if she does decide to keep you alive, she will force you to assault Haven, most likely while there are children there, for the relic."

"OI!" Ozpin stopped his diatribe, turning towards Ruby, "Soooo…"

"Miss Rose," Ozpin straightened up, "You're looking better."

"Yeah, that happens," Ruby said, walking over to the chair next to Raven and sitting down. Raven took a moment to examine Ruby out of the corner of her eye. Was she… taller? "So, what's all this about relics and maidens? Sounds like some sorta secret war like out of a book."

"You don't know?" Raven asked.

"Should I?"

"Well," Raven said, "I had assumed you were a Maiden."

"She isn't," Ozpin said, "Which leads to my own questions. How are you capable of magic, Miss Rose? Does it have to do with your patrons?"

"Something like that," Ruby shrugged.

"I'd prefer if you would be a bit more direct, Miss Rose," Ozpin said, "after yesterday…"

"Serana has skill with magic because of a Daedric Prince," Ruby said, before her face grew stormy, "and don't you _dare_ bug her about it. She'll tell you when she's good and ready."

"But not you?" Ozpin asked.

"Wha-" Ruby tilted her head, "Oh, no. Sure, Mora boosted it, which is technically what happened to Sera, but that isn't where most of it comes from."

"Which is…?" Ozpin prompted.

"If Daedra means 'not our ancestors' what does Aedra mean?"

What?

"I would assume it translates to 'our ancestors'. Am I to infer that there is another pantheon of beings like the Daedric Princes? Aedric Princes?"

"They generally are just called the Aedra, but yeah," Ruby said, "Tons of little ones, but eight big ones. Stendarr, Arkay, Zenithar, Mara, Kynareth, Julianos, Dibella and Akatosh are what they're most commonly called. Depending on who you are, you might tack Shor or Talos onto them to make nine. I'm not super religious, but I add Shor, personally. Talos is weird."

"And which one is most important here?"

"Akatosh," Ruby said, before saying something absurd, "Dragon of Time and my divine father."

Ozpin's face became stormy, "I hope you aren't implying that your mother-"

"-Divine father, Ozpin," Ruby chided, "it happens. Born to mortal parents, with an Aedric soul. Imagine it as three parents, Mom, Dad, and Bormah. My Mom was Summer Rose, my Dad is Tai-Yang Xiao Long, My Bormah is Akatosh. If it's causing a headache, think about it felt for me."

"You've know this for a while?"

"About five years now. That stuff I was yelling during our fight?" Ruby tilted her head towards Raven, "Dovahzul."

Ozpin examined Ruby closely, "And would that have to do with why you appear to have aged a few years quite literally overnight? Or why you were afraid to-"

"Wait, I have?" at Ozpin's nod, Ruby leapt from her chair, swinging her fist into the air, "YES! Bormahu, Zu'u Kogaan Fah Daar Kogaan!"

"Did she just say one word twice?" Raven asked Ozpin, who gave a bemused nod.

"Can I take, from your reaction and the epithet you gave this Akatosh that this is your _true_ age, as it were?"

"Depends, do I look around twenty?" Ruby asked and at Ozpin's nod, she danced in place, "YES!"

"And I take it that's what you were trying to figure out how to tell your family?" Ozpin asked, and at Ruby's nod, quirked his lips, "Well, I suppose now it will be quite a bit easier for you. Though I can assist you, if you wish."

"Sur-" Ruby stopped, staring at her fingers as gold light flecked of them, "NO! NO! Bohamu, Ni Hi Dreh Daar!"

"Why's that necklace glowing?" Raven asked, pointing towards the golden necklace around Ruby's neck.

"What-?" Ruby stopped, staring at it, "Maybe…?"

"What?" Raven asked in turn, only for Ruby to grab the necklace, blue-white energy flowing into it before the golden light rising off her body stopped, leaving Ruby to give a relieved sigh.

"Right, gold necklace affects my age," Ruby said to herself, "Probably Bormahu realizing he screwed up or something. Now, what was that about relics and maidens? Sounded like some sort of secret war ou-"

"-out of a book," Raven said dryly, "You said that. Also, do you have any place to complain when you're claiming some sort of spiritual descent from a god?"

"Touche," Ruby said, before pausing, "You know I'm still gonna be dragging you back."

"I-" Raven looked back at Ozpin. After the showing yesterday, there wasn't much of a chance that Salem didn't know, "Need to go back to Vale anyways."

"Cool," Ruby shrugged, "Now, maidens, relics?"

"If I tell you," Ozpin said, "You're going to be dragged into the 'secret war'."

"I'm Dovahkiin, Ozpin," Ruby said, "Fighting is what I do. The harder and bloodier the fight, the better."

"Then sit down, and I'll explain it to you," Ozpin gestured to the chair.

"You mind if I go grab Sera first? I don't generally keep huge stuff like that from her."

"Partners in every way?"

"Pretty much," Ruby said.

"Then go," Ozpin inclined his head. Raven watched her go, before Ozpin chuckled, "Qrow was right."

"What?"

"He thought Ruby and Serana were either in a relationship, or close to it. I booked them one bed rooms because of it. That they haven't complained and what she said all but confirms it. Pretty much partners in every way."

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana turned at the knock on her and Ruby's door, blinking as she noticed Coco leaning against the door. The brown haired huntress had one eyebrow raised "Sooo, where's your friend?"

"She went to talk to Ozpin," Serana said, walking towards Coco.

"Really?" Coco asked, "Yats said she was pretty out of it yesterday."

"Ruby's resilient," Serana said, "It takes more than a gust of wind to put her down."

"Gust? The news said that was a freakin' tornado levels."

"Like I said, a gust of wind," Serana said, "If you really want to make Ruby squirm, make her do anything social."

"Oof," Coco winced, "That type?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, a fight addict," Coco waved her hand like that explained everything.

Serana supposed, on some level, it did. Nonetheless, the vampire felt the need to defend her friend, "Ruby's not that bad."

"Really?" Coco asked, pulling out a pair of dark tinted glasses and putting them on as they stepped into the sun. Serana pulled her hood up, doing her best to ignore the heat, "Sensitive skin?"

"Sorry?" Serana asked.

"You always wear a hood when you're outside," Coco said, "Sensitive skin?"

"Something like that," Serana said, hedging around the question.

"Ever try sunblock?" Coco asked.

"What?"

"Sunblock?" Coco repeated, giving Serana an odd look, "You know-"

"Sera!" Serana had just enough time to turn around before Ruby rushed past, snagging her arm and essentially using the vampire as an anchor to twirl around, "C'mon, c'mon!"

"Where?" Serana asked, allowing herself to be dragged along with an apologetic wave to Coco.

"Ozpin! He's got stuff to tell us!"

"Real descriptive," Serana said with a sigh.

"Can't say more out here!" Ruby babbled, a familiar grin on her face.

"Ruby," Serana said, already feeling the weight of resignation, "Why do I get the feeling this is going to end with us fighting for our lives?"

"I know! It's great!" Ruby said with a wider grin, one that immediately froze in place at Serana's next question.

"Didn't you just get finished promising Blaise to be a bit more careful?"

"I-" Ruby turned away, shaking her head wildly, "I'm gonna be, but… I can't just stop doing anything, Sera."

"I know," Serana said, squeezing Ruby's hand, "Maybe have Erandur around? Better to have a healer on hand."

"Yeah," Ruby nodded, "Yeah! I'll talk to Ozpin about it! And we can bring Ly and the Companions and-!"

"The Companions have other things to do than do something here," Serana said, "but we should give them and Balgruuf a way to contact us, in case Ulfric or the Legion decides to stop letting Whiterun be neutral."

"Yeah," Ruby nodded, "Yeah! That's a good point! We should do that! You're right! It's a good idea!"

"Ruby," Serana sighed, "You're repeating yourself."

"Oh! Uh, yeah! C'mon, we need to meet with Ozpin!"

\- X **Glynda** X-

"This is insane," Glynda said.

"You've said that countless times in the last ten minutes," Ozpin said from where he was seated on one of the couches around Leo's office.

"That's because it is _insane_ ," Glynda stressed, pacing, "Let's assume, for a moment, that Ms. Rose is telling the truth-"

"She is," Ozpin said without a hint of doubt, "but, please, continue."

"Assuming she is," Glynda said, "There is no reason to just _divulge_ our secrets to her because she can do a few parlor tricks!"

"Glynda," Ozpin said, "If this was just a few parlor tricks, I would not be considering this. I have watched countless skilled students pass by without allowing them to know of Salem. But I have a plan."

"then please enlighten me," Glynda said, voice clipped.

"Ms. Rose is capable of magic," Ozpin stated simply.

"So?"

"So, she is capable of magic," Ozpin repeated, "I know that it isn't the type of magic we normally deal with, but we can use this to our advantage nonetheless."

"How?"

"We pretend she _is_ a Maiden," Ozpin said, "Salem knows our basic precautions well, all we must do, is convince Ms. Rose to work with them."

"Salem knows how many Maidens there ar-" Leonardo started to protest, only for Raven's laugh to cut him off.

"Exactly!" Raven said, "That's exactly what Ozpin in relying on."

"What?" Leonardo asked, head turtled in.

"If we do everything to put myself and Ruby under Maiden protection," Raven said, "that leaves at least one actual Maiden they won't be hunting."

"I," Glynda frowned, "Yes, but…"

"Ruby doesn't seem the type to willingly go into that type of seclusion," Raven finished for her.

"I don't expect her to," Ozpin said, "but this will be more than just us telling her our secrets, it will be an exchange of knowledge. Everyone has a weakness, a desire. I'm certain we can barter with her. Give her what she wants in return for her doing what we want."

"Didn't you want her at Beacon?" Glynda asked.

"Where better a place to watch her?"

\- X AN X-

Shorter than normal (sorry)

Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?


	5. Chapter 5

So, sorry this took so long to get out and is so short, I'm dealing with some bad stuff on the

psychiatry (not psychology, before someone goes to correct that) front, and decided to get this out before I get so far down that dark path I just throw it out.

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana sighed as Ruby pushed open the door with a jittery smile, bouncing on the balls of her feet with a slight laugh, "We're here!"

"No shit," Raven said from where she was examining her sword. The blue blade she had was noticeably warped and cracked towards the end.

"There's no reason to be like that," Ozpin chided, gesturing for Ruby and Serana to enter the room. As they stepped further in, the blond woman, Glynda, flicked her hand in the direction of the door, slamming it shut, "Please, have a seat you two. Do you want something to eat or drink?"

"No, thank you," Serana said, carefully guiding Ruby over to one of the couches and sitting down.

"Well then," Ozpin said, lacing his fingers, "I suppose we should begin… Miss Rose, Serana, what do you know about the Story of the Seasons?"

"The one about the four Maidens and the Wizard?" Ruby asked.

"Yes."

"The story goes that an old wizard was visited by four sisters," Ruby said carefully, "and that to thank them for being kind, the Wizard turned them into some sort of embodiment of the seasons. I'm guessing there's some truth to that story?"

"You don't sound surprised by that."

"I'm a walking story myself," Ruby said, "after the first go around, I've just kinda taken to assuming that things are true."

"Which leads to her being disappointed when they _aren't_ ," Serana finished, ignoring Ruby sticking her tongue out.

"Well," Ozpin said, "Yes, there is quite a bit of truth in the story. Which leads to the 'secret war' part. We," he gestured around the room, "are a group dedicated to protecting the Maidens from those who would exploit their powers."

"Which means there's a group that knows the Maidens exist and want to exploit them," Serana finished.

"Precisely," Ozpin nodded.

"So," Ruby said, the madcap 'doom driven' grin appearing on her face in full force, "What're we gonna do about them?"

"I'm sorry?"

"They're still around, right?" Ruby asked with a giddy laugh, "That means we gotta deal with them!"

"Thank you, Miss Rose, but if it was that easy, I would have long dealt with the matter myself."

"Yeah, but you didn't have _me_!" Ruby said, sitting straight up with a confident smirk on her face.

"You're not that strong," Raven rebutted, "I fought you to a stand still just fine yesterday."

"I was holding back," Ruby defended, deflating like a balloon. Serana rolled her eyes.

"Great," Serana sighed, "Now she's going to be sulking all day. Thanks for that."

"Sure you were," Raven rolled her eyes in turn, before leaning forward and examining Serana, "You're not human, are you?"

"Raven!" Ruby jumped to her feet, "Don't you dare-!"

"A human doesn't have eyes like that," Raven continued.

"I said, don't!" Ruby continued.

"And her reaction makes it clear there's something up."

"I-"

"It's fine," Serana told Ruby, "They let us in on a secret, I'll let them know."

\- X **Ruby** X-

Ruby met Serana's eyes, wetting her lips, "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Ok," Ruby said, settling down next to Serana and reaching out to grab one hand. Serana Serana silently laced their fingers, apparently becoming very interested in watching herself do that, "You don't-"

"I know," Serana said.

"Serana," Ozpin spoke up, "While I appreciate the sentiment, if this is something private… or painful, nobody here has any expectation for you to divulge it."

"It's fine," Serana repeated, breathing in, "I am what's known as a vampire. A mon-"

"You're _not_ a monster," Ruby cut Serana off.

"...creature that drinks blood to survive."

"And where do you get this blood?" Glynda asked.

"I would assume, considering the bandage over the approximate location of Miss Rose's carotid the day our trip began, Serana subsided mainly upon her blood."

Ruby's unoccupied hand jumped up, eyes wide. She had been sure she had covered it! "I, uh… yeah. I'm immune to the more nasty effects, so I let her drink from me."

"Before you ask," Serana jumped in, "the curse acts like a disease. Unless there's something else blocking it, I could pass it on."

"Hircine's blessing," Ozpin observed, "Is this a 'blessing' from another Daedric Prince?"

"I wouldn't call it a blessing," Ruby groused under her breath.

"It comes from the Daedric Prince my family worshipped, yes."

"Which is?"

"Molag Bal," Serana said, squeezing Ruby's hand before the Dragonborn could do the same.

"You haven't mentioned him, Miss Rose."

"The less I have to talk about him," Ruby said, struggling to keep the bitterness out of her voice, "the better."

"He's known as the Lord of Domination," Serana supplied.

"And your family worships him?"

"Worshipped," Ruby corrected, "the Volkihar bloodline is all but dead."

"My condolences," Goodwitch said to Serana, voice wavering, "I know-"

"None are needed," Serana responded, "I helped Ruby and the Dawnguard stop them."

"Stop them?"

"I dealt with her dad," Ruby said with a forced shrug, jerking her thumb towards the scar on her face, "He gave me this, cursed sword carved into my existence. The Dawnguard did the rest."

"You seem really calm about admitting you killed her dad," Raven said.

"He got what he deserved," Ruby defended, "Any man who does what needs to be done to get Bal's… Bal's…" Ruby grit her teeth, "Bal's damned blessing deserves a lot more than what I did!"

"Man?" the brown haired man who had been sitting to the side quietly spoke up, "Why any _man_?"

"Because a man can't give Bal what he wants for that blessing," Serana interjected, "at least, I've never heard of it happening."

"And what does Bal want?" Raven questioned, squinting at them.

"Sera," Ruby leaned next to Serana's ear, half wishing she could block her friend entirely, "You don't need to tell them-"

"You found out through my _mother_ ," Serana rebutted.

"And if I had known," Ruby insisted, "I wouldn't have asked!"

"Well..." Serana started, causing Ruby to flush.

"You know what I mean!" Ruby said, "This isn't something you should have to talk about if you don't want to!"

"Wait…" Ruby froze as she realized her voice had been getting progressively louder, turning towards Raven. The older woman had a look of disgust on her face, "Don't tell me… Dust, that's disgusting! You're angry at me compared _that_?"

Ruby saw red as she whirled, abandoning the conversation she had been having.

"Ruth Hi Wah Vul Golt Ko Oblivion!" Ruby started in Dovahzul, beginning to march towards Raven and feeling her hand wrap around the familiar hilt of Dragonbane, "if you think _that's_ the bar for what makes a good parent, you're worse than I thoug-"

Ruby blinked as Ozpin appeared between them, his hand pressed against Ruby's stomach… and an apologetic look on his face, "I would suggest you and Serana step outside, Miss Rose, and enjoy the rest of this day. We have ample time to discuss what I wish of you throughout the rest of this trip."

"Thank you," Serana said, grabbing Ruby's hand and pulling the Dragonborn away.

"And Serana?" Ozpin started.

"Yes?"

"Thank you for being so forthcoming," Ozpin said, "but I agree with Miss Rose and stand by my statement. There was no need for this topic to come this far. I would say there was little need for the topic to come up in the first place."

"Thank you, Professor," Serana said, pulling Ruby along and out the door, "Come on, Ruby. Let's go… let's go do _anything_."

"Uh, yeah, sure," Ruby said, allowing herself to be dragged along, "Do you wanna go into the city or…"

"I don't care."

\- X **Glynda** X-

Glynda, like everyone in the room, was sitting at the table as an awkward silence hung over the room. Finally, Ozpin broke it, "That conversation didn't need to happen, Raven."

"What? We need to know everything about those two. They're-"

"Serana's family, and anything that ensued because of that, has _nothing_ to do with combating Salem!" Ozpin snapped, before taking a calming breath, "We didn't ask to meet them to dig up past wounds."

Raven and Ozpin stared each other down for a long moment, and Glynda reached for her crop in case Raven tried anything. Finally, the bandit's eyes wavered, "I didn't expect it to be like that, but you saw her eyes. They were like… they weren't human."

"They weren't that strange," Glynda said, "Yellow eyes aren't _that_ ra- why are you looking at me like that?"

"Were we seeing the same thing?" Raven asked, "because those weren't yellow eyes."

"I… quite agree with Raven," Ozpin said carefully, "I hadn't brought Serana's nature up, but I had my suspicions something was different about her upon seeing her eyes."

"I agree with Glynda," Leonardo said, "I didn't see anything strange about her eyes. What did you see?"

"They were glowing amber," Raven said, "with black pinpricks where her pupils should have been."

"When she says glowing," Ozpin added, "she means that outside of her pupils, Serana's eyes were completely amber."

"Why would it look s-?" Leonardo stopped as a loud beep went off on to his desk. Standing up, the headmaster of Haven scampered around the desk and hit the button, "Yes?"

"I'm sorry sir," the voice of the receptionist came, "but is Professor Ozpin there? He's getting been getting calls from a Mr. Tai-Ya-"

"Put him through," Ozpin said.

"Yes, sir."

"Oz," Tai's voice was clipped.

"Tai," Ozpin started, "I take it you've heard th-"

" _Of course_ I've heard the news," Tai cut Ozpin off, "So would you please tell me why I just saw my daughter and ex-wife," Glynda caught Raven flinch out of the corner of her eye, "trying to kill each other on international television?"

"They ran into each other here," Ozpin said, "it rather swiftly descended into them coming to blows-"

"I could have told you that," Tai growled, "I want to know what's going on."

"It's too complicated-"

"Oz, I woke up two weeks ago to a cat man and woman I've never met before but that apparently know my daughter house crashing," Tai said, "since then, everything has been 'complicated'. I think I'm entitled to a fucking-"

"And you will get an explanation," Ozpin said, "I've already secured a promise from Miss Rose on that. But it's too complicated to explain over a call, it needs to be done face to face."

"She's not in danger, is she, Oz?" Tai's voice wavered, "Please, I can't-"

"She's fine," Ozpin said, "a bit over excited at the idea of fighting something, but fine. You missed her and Serana by less than five minutes, they were going into the city together."

"Is she alright? She got hit-"

"As I said, she's fine. You wouldn't have known she was in a fight if you hadn't seen it. I'll have her call you. Now, I need to go, I'm quite busy."

"Wai-!" Tai managed to get out before Ozpin reached out and hit the disconnect button with a sigh.

"Do remind me to have Miss Rose call him, he deserves that much."

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana picked at her food, well aware that Ruby was doing the same across the table. Ruby finally broke the silence, "I screwed up again, didn't I?"

"I just wish you would stop treating me like glass," Serana said, "I hadn't planned to go as far as to tell them about what Bal did to me."

"I'm the one who caused that topic to come up," Ruby said, planting her head against the table with a sad moan, "I'm sorry. So, _so_ sorry."

"It's ok," Serana said.

"No, it's not."

"Let's say we're even now," Serana said.

"How are we even?" Ruby hadn't moved her head.

"Well," Serana said lightly as possible, "When we were at Proudspire, Erandur told me this ridiculous idea that dragons being associated with domination made you compare yourself with _Bal_."

"WHAT!?" Ruby thundered, jumping to her feet, "I told him tha-"

"Which is ridiculous," Serana said, raising her voice to be heard over Ruby, "Because Bal would have left the world to be destroyed by Alduin, or assisted my Father-!"

"I-!"

"Excuse me!" both stopped, turning towards the employee, "I'm very sorry to interrupt… whatever that was, but you're disturbing the other diners, so I'm going to have to ask you to settle down or pay and leave-"

"That's fine," Ruby said, pulling out her wallet and shoving a few pieces of Lien into the employee's hand, turning and walking out of the restaurant as Serana shot an apologetic look at the employee and rushed to follow.

"Ruby!" Serana called, chasing after the Dragonborn, "Ruby, wait!" Ruby didn't stop, "Gods dammit, Ruby Rose you are going to stop and we are going to talk about this!"

Ruby froze, allowing Serana to catch up to her.

"Ruby," the vampire said, "Why didn't you tell me this? Of course you're not like Bal. I could have told you that, anyone could have told you that."

"How?" Ruby's voice was choked, and when Serana turned her around, she could see tear tracks down Ruby's face, "How could you-?"

"You let me feed off you," Serana said, "You let a mons-"

"You're not a monste-" Ruby started.

"Then why are you?" Serana asked, "Bal made us like him-" Ruby opened her mouth, "- _don't_ , if you're allowed to act like something so minor can define you I more than have the right. Bal made me like him, I _need_ to dominate things to survive, but you're always saying I'm not a monster. Why are you?"

Ruby didn't say anything, and on some level, Serana knew why. That Ruby felt their situations were different because Serana's had been forced onto her, while Ruby had been born that way.

"Come on," Serana said, grabbing Ruby's hand, "let's go back to the room. Weren't there movies or whatever they're called you wanted to show me?"

\- X **Qrow** X-

Qrow pushed open the door with his toe, watching Tai hammer away at the punching bag in Signal's gym, "You alright, man?"

The bag swung a stop as Tai turned towards him, hair matted down with sweat and smoke rising from his knuckles, "What are you doing here?"

"Got home fifteen minutes ago," Qrow said, "Yang said you had stayed behind and she had to take the bus. What's wrong?"

"You seen the news yet?"

"Haven't had time," Qrow asked, unscrewing his flask's cover, "why?"

"Because all they seem to want to talk about is the fact that Raven and Ruby tore up part of Mistral's Faunus District a couple days back."

Qrow's flask slipped from numb fingers, "What!?"

"Yeah," Tai said.

"Is she alright?" Qrow asked, ignoring the puddle of alcohol forming around his shoes.

"They were both still standing when Ozpin interrupted them," Tai said, "and he says Ruby's fine."

"But?"

"But she hasn't called or anything!" Tai vented, spinning in place and striking the heat retardant bag with all his strength, "Ozpin says she will, but-"

Qrow closed an eye as the jet of hot, dry air washed over part of his face, "You want me to talk to Oz? He'll listen to me."

"It's not Ozpin I'm worried about," Tai said, resting his head against the bag, "It's Ruby."

"What?"

"She's not telling us these things," Tai said, "She ran halfway across the world to avoid us. How can we be sure that she won't find some excuse to get away when she gets back?"

"I'll talk to Oz," Qrow said, "He'll find some way to keep her around."

\- X AN X-

Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?


	6. Chapter 6

Alright, you know how I said I was gonna have Ruby and Tai talk this chapter? Yeah, it got pushed back once more. I lost someone important to me, and it became easier to channel that into writing the start of Ruby and Farkas's Roaring Rampage of Revenge for Kodlak.

\- X **Ruby** X-

Ruby finished examining Dragonbane, sliding the enchanted katana into the dragonbone sheath she used to hold it. Closing her eyes and pressing the hilt against her forehead, Ruby spoke in Dovahzul under her breath, "Bormahu, Shor, Aak Zu'u."

"Worried?" Serana asked from her place in the door.

"We're going to try to convince the leader of the White Fang to listen to us," Ruby said, casting a spell to banish (one of) her fathers' gift back to Nirn and standing, "When I tore up part of the Faunus district a couple of days ago."

It was still weird to think that she had two dads without any adoption type stuff being involved. Especially when one of them was a freakin' god.

"You didn't seem that worried about it during the heat of the moment," Serana said.

"Isn't that how it always is during the heat of the moment?" Ruby asked, stopping as Serana held her arm across the doorway, "What?"

"Do you have the information?" Serana asked, causing Ruby to freeze.

"Uhhhhh," Ruby span, booking around the bed to grab her suitcase and ransacking it for the lockbox full of information from Vale. Finally pulling it out, Ruby dropped it in her rucksack, turned to Serana, "What would I do without you?"

"Pester Lydia?" Serana said, voice taking a lit that, had Ruby not been off kilter, she might have recognized as teasing.

"I don't pester," Ruby defended.

"It's a joke," Serana sighed.

"Oh," Ruby nodded, "Right."

They both climbed into the taxi waiting for them, sitting in near silence as they were driven towards the White Fang front. After a few minutes, Ruby spoke, "Ozpin wants me to call Dad…"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Serana said, "I mean, you have been on the news for the past few days…"

"I know," Ruby said, "I just… I don't know what to do! I'm still not sure how to explain it to him…

\- X **Serana** X-

Serana stepping out of the car ahead of Ruby, staring at the blocked off road before looking back to see the girl hand several pieces of Lien to the driver. Once she got out, they stepped into the White Fang base…

...and, quite expectedly, were left staring down several guns. Ruby held out a five Lien card and Serana took it as the Dragonborn stepped forward, "So-!"

A loud crack echoed, followed by Ruby's head jerking back and her Aura flashing. A small coin shaped bit of metal fell from the center of her forehead as Ruby took a deep breath and the leader of the guards pushed the gun of another down.

"Ruby," Serana said, doing her best to ground her friend as she saw the bulging yellow eye. Ruby growled, before stopping.

"Take us to your leader," she said, voice husky.

"Right this way," the guard leader said.

"They didn't say she was a Faunus," the one who shot Ruby said, falling in line behind her.

"So?" another said, "You saw how much her and the other woman ripped apart the street, you're lucky she didn't rip your arms off or something."

\- X **Ruby** X-

Ruby couldn't keep the scowl off her face as she rubbed at the stinging spot. That was really friggin' unnecessary, in her opinion.

"Don't do anything drastic," Serana said.

"I wasn't gonna," Ruby said, frowning as she caught Serana's eye roll, "What?"

"Don't act like you don't have a track record," Serana said.

"It's hard," Ruby muttered. It was in her nature to retaliate against provocation against her supremacy, and the only thing bigger than a bullet to the skull in that was to call her out in Dovahzul.

"But you can do it," Serana said, "I know you can."

Ruby closed her eyes, pushing down the draconic and lycanthropic instincts growling in her. They wanted to be let free, to rip and feel blood pour down her fangs, to roar in Dovahzul. She was Ysmir! Inheritor of the Stormcrown! Dragon of the North! Daughter of Akatosh and sister of Paarthurnax!

No, _no_ , that wasn't right. She wasn't supposed to think like that! She was a hero. Heroes didn't do that on Remnant, as they did in Skyrim. She needed to get outta the mind set. Just because her very _Voice_ could kill didn't mean it _should_.

Even if she had stopped the Dark Brotherhood with that same Voice, saving Shor only knew lives. Even if she had brought Potema low...

Ruby slammed the heel of her hand into the side of her head, once, twi-

Before she could finish the second blow, Serana caught her hand.

"Stop that," Serana rebuked, "Hurting yourself doesn't help with anything."

Ruby nodded, putting her arm down, "Right… right… C'mon, I want to get this over with."

"Good," Ruby's eyes jumped to the dark skinned woman seated on a throne on the opposite end of the hall from them, two bodyguards on each side of her, for four in total, clutching spears, "Because you're lucky I'm still entertaining the idea of talking to you if the first place, after the amount of destruction you caused."

"You're Sienna Khan, then?" Ruby said, striding towards the amber eyed woman, ignoring the four spears bristling at her.

"Yes," Sienna said, "Now, who are you two, and why the hell did you get into a fight outside my home?"

"Sorry," Ruby said.

"Sorry?" Sienna snarled, " _Sorry_!? I'm not the one you should be apologizing to! Do you know how much damage you caused? How much supplies that people don't want to sell to Faunus is needed to repair it, how much Lien my people need to pay that they don't have? How many people are going to work themselves to death to make a fraction of the-"

"Here," Ruby said, grabbing the bag of coins off her back and tossing it at Sienna. One of the bodyguards grabbed it out of the air as the other three rushed down the steps, two pressing their spears against Ruby's throat while the third did the same to Serana.

"Ma'am," the last bodyguard said, holding out a coin to Sienna.

"Gold?" Sienna said, softly, turning the coin in her hand, before she applied pressure to the edges, creating a cylinder. Looking at Ruby, Sienna raised a hand, "Stand down, men. You bought yourself a conversation, girl. Use it wisely."

\- X **Sienna** X-

Sienna watched the pair standing in front of her with narrowed eyes. Reaching down to touch her weapon, the White Fang head scowled. What type of person carried around that much gold, in this day?

Still, money spoke to many humans. She would use contacts to have it turned into Lien, and use that lien to repair the damages done. Her people would be able to go back to their lives, ideally within a month, everything would be back to normal. And, if there was any money left over, she would have it hidden away as insurance in case anyone came needing more.

It was rare for a human to so readily supply compensation for destruction of Faunus's property. But then, it was rare for humans to seek Sienna out in the first place. Not even Leonardo Lionheart had ever bothered, and he was a Faunus!

It intrigued her, to say the least.

"What do you want?" Sienna asked.

The lead girl, the one who had thrown the money at her, dropped the bag she was wearing, reaching down to fish through it. Sienna immediately snapped her hand up as she noticed the strange dagger hanging from the rucksack, looking more like a blue Dust crystal held in place by brass than a conventional weapon. Finally, the girl stood up, holding a lockbox, "We came to bring you this."

"Who's it from?" Sienna asked, "what's in it?"

"I… uh… crap, I don't remember-"

The other, older girl mumbed out a name, loud enough for Sienna's ears to catch, "Lonán, I assume."

"Lonán!" the younger girl said, voice triumphant, "He was going to try and get a meeting to deliver this personally."

"And instead he sent you two?" Sienna asked, unable to keep the bafflement from her voice. She didn't know a Lonán, as far as she knew.

"He's a bit busy being dead," the younger said.

"My… condolences…" Sienna said, carefully.

"None needed," the girl said, "We didn't know the guy."

"And yet you came all the way from… where, exactly?"

"Vale."

So these girls had, for no apparent reward, traveled across a continent to deliver whatever was in that box to Sienna? For someone they didn't know, who was apparently dead? That, along the inability to detect any dishonesty in her words, sent every honed instinct in Sienna hissing, that wasn't normal. Not just from a human, but from a Faunus.

What were these two?

The younger walked forwards, holding the lockbox out. Two spears crossed between them, but she didn't blink, just holding her arm out enough for the box to be within grabbing distance of Sienna. What the hell were her guards doing? What if it was a bomb or something?

How had she even brought that into the chamber without it being confiscated? Still, Sienna grabbed it, looking down, "What's the combination?"

"Uh…"

Sienna rolled her eyes, grabbing her weapon and smashing the hilt against the top until it popped open. Sienna reached into it, staring at the papers she pulled out.

 **September 10th, Taurus sends Team C on a mission to Merlot industries, no survivors**.

Sienna stared at the papers, before a disbelieving laugh rose up, "You're kidding me!"

"What?"

"You think you can just walk in with a bunch of papers accusing one of my lieutenants of treason, and expect me to believe you?"

"We are-"

"I can't-" Sienna continued, planting her hand on her face and continuing to laugh, "how stupid do you think I am!?"

"We don't-"

"Adam Taurus has served the White Fang faithfully-"

"For Shor's sake, listen to me!" the young girl snarled with a guttural rumble in her voice, stomping her foot so hard the ground audibly cracked below the carpet, silencing Sienna, "I don't know if this Taurus guy is a traitor or not, I don't really _care_. I just said I'd deliver the stupid box, and I did! If you don't believe it, good for you, I hope he doesn't stab you in the back, _bye_!"

The girl turned, stomping away from Sienna as the High Leader stared at her with an open jaw. Then Sienna looked at her bodyguards, who were standing at attention. What the hell were they doing, why were they just standing there?

Unless there was an insurrection brewing…

"Wait!" Sienna called.

"What?"

"What happened to Lonán? Why couldn't he bring these himself?"

"He was tortured to death," the young girl said, "said it was for planning to bring these to you."

"Bull," one of Sienna's guards said, "How would he be able to tell you if he was tortured to-"

"'Far more impressive than the amount things that are instantly lethal'," the older girl said, "'is the amount of things that _aren't'_ as my father would say."

"Sounds like a pleasant man," Sienna snarked.

"He wasn't," the younger said.

"Sarcasm, Ruby," the older said.

"Oh…" Ruby muttered.

"I'll think about it," Sienna said, "That's all."

\- X **Ruby** X -

Ruby slid back into the taxi, letting Serana shut the door. She didn't trust herself not damage it, "She reminds me of Elenwen."

Serana rolled her eyes, slapping Ruby's shoulder, "don't exaggerate."

Ruby gave a petulant grumble, crossing her arms. So what if she was exaggerating? "Then who'd she remind you of?"

"Laila," Serana said without missing a beat.

"Lalia?" Ruby said.

"Yeah," Serana stopped to trace a glowing rune into the divider between them and the driver, muffling their words, "Did you notice?"

"What?" Ruby said.

"You got close to her, and her guards barely reacted. You got riled up, and they barely reacted. Those aren't the actions of guards who-"

"-want whoever they're guarding still alive," Ruby breathed, eyes wide, "Nust Paara Gruth Rek!"

"Translation for those of us who don't speak Dovah?"

"They plan to betray her!"

"Exactly," Serana said, "What do we do?"

"Find this Taurus guy," Ruby said instantly, "kil- stop him."

"That's an extrinsic solution to an intrinsic problem."

"What?"

"Even if we kill Taurus," Serana said, not bothering to sugarcoat the intent. They both knew how these things ended, "it doesn't change the fact that there so much dissent amongst her men that somehow her bodyguards want her dead."

"We're just lucky her guards didn't decide to murder her and frame us for it," Ruby muttered, crossing her arms before speaking up, "We'll deal with that hurdle when it comes up."

"Situation normal, eh?"

"Yep."

"Good," Serana said, "now let's go call your dad."

Ruby whimpered. When Sera said it like that, it was clear she wasn't escaping it. She _would_ be talking to Tai before the day was up.

\- X **Ruby** X-

 _Ruby stepped into Whiterun, giving a smile and a wave at the guards, "Hi!"_

 _"Hello, Thane," one said, voice soft, "heading up to Dragonsreach?"_

 _"Jorrvaskr," Ruby said, eyes catching the uncomfortable shift, "Is something up?"_

 _"There… was an attack on Jorrvaskr, in the early hours, ma'am," Ruby's gut dropped, at those words, hand immediately shooting for the Skyforged sword she had been gifted upon joining the Companions, "The Companions refuse to let us in, leaving the bodies of the attackers outside. Most of them are from beyond S-"_

 _"I need to go," Ruby said, already moving in a burst of petals before the guards could finish. An attack on Jorrvaskr? Why?_

 _Whiterun was almost disturbingly silent as Ruby rushed through the market and into the cloud district. For perhaps the first time she could remember, Heimskr wasn't reciting the Many Headed Talos, the shops weren't opened and, perhaps most stunningly, the Battle-Born and Grey Manes weren't arguing despite the vigil they were sharing, Vignar praying at the statue of Ruby's brother, while Jon Battle-Born hovered at his father's shoulder, keeping him from irritating the praying man._

 _"Dragonborn," Jon greeted, the skald giving a grimace to her._

 _"What happened?"_

 _"I'm not sure," Jon said, "Woke up this morning to the clashing of steel and cursing, got here just in time to see Aela put an arrow through a fleeing dark elf's throat. They had a high elf who tried to bring fire down on Jorrvaskr, I took them out before they could light the entire place, and the Court Mage put out what little they did have."_

 _"The Thalmor went too far this time!" Vignar snarled, standing from his prayers and turning to Olfrid, "Do you see what supporting the Empire gets us? First they came for Talos, now the cradle of nordic civila-"_

 _He wilted at the reproachful glare Ruby leveled at him, before her eyes turned to Olfrid, daring him to continue the fight. The Battle-Born patriarch lifted his hands in silent surrender._

 _"I'm going in," Ruby said, turning back to Jon._

 _"Good luck," Jon said, "they won't even let the Jarl's men in."_

 _"They'll let me," Ruby said, climbing up the stairs leading to the mead hall three at a time._

 _"'Beware, Beware, the Dragonborn comes", eh?" Jon said, trailing behind her to help the guard move an argonian._

 _Ruby didn't respond as she stared up at her home, watching one smoldering part of the roof shaped like a nordic longship crumble as she clenched her fist. Who had done this? Who had attacked_

 _ **her home**_ _while she was gone?_

 _Wo Lost Nikriin?_

 _Ruby grabbed the door, yanking it open and coming face to face with an angry Vilkas, "I told you- Ruby?"_

 _"Hey? What's up-?" Ruby said, before Vilkas grabbed her by the scruff of her cloak dragging her in and slamming the door in Jon's face. Ruby's head collided with the wall, as Vilkas growled at her._

 _"Where were you!?" He snarled._

 _"I was getting something for Kodlak," Ruby started._

 _"I hope it was worth it," Vilkas said, yanking her forwards, "because you weren't where he_

 _ **truly**_ _needed you, when he needed you."_

 _Before Ruby could catch sight of whatever Vilkas was gesturing towards, Farkas put himself between her and it, the bear of a man staring down his twin, "She doesn't need to see it, Brother."_

 _"See what?" Ruby asked, trying to look around Farkas, "Farkas!"_

 _"She's going to learn eventually, Brother," Vilkas said._

 _"...Fine," Farkas said, stepping aside with downcast eyes, voice wobbling, "fine…"_

 _The minute Ruby's eyes landed on what was behind Farkas, however, her stomach dropped, her body felt like it had been doused in frozen water, and her ears were filled with a loud roar. The Dragon of the North staggered forward, sinking to her knees next to Njada as her mind entered freefall._

 _This wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible._

 _The Harbinger's warhammer sat embedded in the firepit at the heart of Jorrvaskr, a Khajiit laying next to it with a caved in skull, their fur burning on the makeshift pyre. Ruby forced her eyes down, to see the sight before her._

 _Kodlak's face betrayed the slightest look of shock, his mouth open and grey eyes wide, while his white beard was stained reddish-brown from the blood that came out of his mouth. On his throat, Ruby could see a wide hole, like someone had… had…_

 _"Who did this," Ruby snarled, an unfamiliar feeling coming to life in her stomach. When nobody answered, Ruby jerk her head up, staring at Vilkas, "WHO!?"_

 _"The Silver Hand," Vilkas supplied, "On your feet, sister. I plan to go after them."_

 _"Vilkas!" Farkas snapped, "the Old Man-!"_

 _"They stole the shards of Wuuthrad!" Vilkas immediately turned to his twin, "even if you have no stomach for revenge, we can't let them take it!"_

 _"I'll go," Ruby said. Looking down at Kodlak, she took off the sword on her back, casting it aside._

 _"What are you doing-?" Before Vilkas could finish, Ruby walked downstairs, heading for her room and grabbing the red wrapped weapon beneath her bed, alongside the last three clips she had. She had wanted to save these for Alduin, it sounded like a good story, the treasured weapon piercing the monster's heart…_

 _Maybe that was how the people who killed Kodlak thought it was. That because they were werewolves, they were just monsters._

 _Well, if they wanted a story involving them and a monster, she would_

 _ **be**_ _that monster, this once._

 _\- X_

 _ **Vilkas**_ _X-_

 _Vilkas stood next to Ruby, staring down at the base, "I can barely see them."_

 _"The sight is telescopic," Ruby responded instantly, eye pressed against the small extension of her scythe._

 _"Like a spyglass?"_

 _"Yeah," Ruby said, "They're pouring something along their swords."_

 _"Belladonna juice, probably," Vilkas said, growling, "whatever you do, sister, don't let them cut you. It will be a quick death, but a painful one."_

 _"Cover your ears," Ruby said._

 _"What?"_

 _"Cover your ears," Ruby repeated, sticking her tongue out._

 _Vilkas did, watching her-_

 _Before he could think, two roars like thunder came from Ruby's scythe, sending Vilkas staggering back in pain even as Ruby lept from the cliff, landing with a heavy thud below. Vilkas swore under his breath, rushing towards the path down. What was she thinking? What was he thinking, bringing her? The Old Man wouldn't want her in danger like this._

 _By the time Vilkas arrived at the entrance, Ruby was standing in the center of four more bodies, running a cloth along the blade of her scythe, cleaning the blood off it. Breathing in, Vilkas felt his eyes trail down towards an eviscerated body, swallowing a mouthful of saliva as his inner beast gave an excited rumble. They had been planning to give Ruby and him a painful death, the least they could do was let him eat the_

 _ **delicious chunk of meat in their che-**_

 _"Fus! Ro! Dah!" Vilkas snapped back to reality, one hand embedded in the chest of the dunmer and wrapped around the heart. Hungry,_

 _ **hung-**_ _"Vilkas, you coming!?"_

 _Vilkas withdrew his hand with a shuddering gasp, fighting against the urge to eat the dunmer. The Wolf Within bayed as he stepped inside, bringing his gauntlet to his mouth, the older Companion took a long lick of the blood._

 _It tasted so_

 _ **good**_ _._

 _Vilkas had always been the Companion with the least control of his Inner Beast. He didn't have the attunement to it Aela and Skjor had, nor the iron control the Old Man had. Even Farkas had more control then him._

 _The inside of the room contained three more Silver Hand crumpled against cracked walls, a spray of red behind each of them while Ruby danced between two more, her scythe batting aside silvered longswords, denting them as she did. Vilkas drew his sword as he charged, smashing a female breton into the ground before spinning his sword around, plunging it straight down into her head._

 _Ruby, meanwhile, hooked her scythe around the nordic man's neck, arms visibly rippling under her sleeves as she effortlessly decapitated him. A spray of blood splattered on her face, causing her to lock up slightly._

 _It was easy to forget the Dragonborn was still a young girl, Vilkas thought, as Ruby reached up to clean the blood off her face. That she-_

 _Vilkas staggered with a roar as an arrow dug into his arm, two more hitting Ruby and bouncing off harmlessly. Ruby turned, twirling her scythe to bat away the next volley before she rushed down the stairs, scythe angled backwards._

 _Vilkas reached down, gripping the arrow. Normally, the smart thing would be to leave it in until they could get healing… but the Silver Hand might have doused the head in belladonna juice, in which case the damn thing needed to be out_

 _ **now**_ _._

 _Gritting his teeth, Vilkas began to pull the arrow from his flesh, a low whine rising from his throat as he did. Then, Ruby's hand wrapped around it, stopping him._

 _"I need to get it out," Vilkas said, "it might be poison-"_

 _Ruby tugged the arrow, yanking it from his flesh in one fell swoop and casting it aside, "There, it's out."_

 _"Thank you, sister," Vilkas said, taking her hand and staggering up, "Come, we have enemies to fight."_

 _Ruby smirked, "Way ahead of you."_

Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?


End file.
